Looking Back Over Jesus’ Life    

The Temptation of Jesus 

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished 

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”  Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ “Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Matthew 4:1-2, 8-11 

I have found in my life as a Christian that faith can be refined in the fires of temptation. In Matthew’s account of the temptations of Jesus, there are three basic ways that His faith was tested. The last of these serves as a reminder that I don’t need everything. 

I know that the devil is a liar. But for a moment, in his weakened state at the end of a 40 day fast, maybe for a moment Jesus thought that Satan had the power to shower us with riches and splendor.  Sometimes I too am tempted to sell my soul for something that sparkles and things with bling.  But worshiping things usually leaves us empty and unfulfilled.  

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught what where our treasure is our heart will also be.  We need to be careful that the splendor and the glitz of things doesn’t draw our attention away from the God that we should alone worship and serve. 

Prayer   

As I go through this day, help me to value people more than things, and my relationship with You and Your children more than the riches that I might try to pursue.  Show me the joy that comes in serving You as a disciple of my Lord and Savior, Jesus, in whose name I pray.  Amen.