Swallowing up the Idols

Published: March 2, 2022, midnight

b'When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, the devil started by challenging Jesus\\u2019s deity: \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d (Matthew 4:3). Because Jesus is God, He could have turned the stones into bread. (And because Jesus is human, He was very hungry after not eating for forty days.) But Jesus didn\\u2019t need to prove that He is the Son of God. He simply answered, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153No! The Scriptures say, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u02dcPeople do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God\\u2019\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d (Matthew 4:4). Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1-14), and He used God\\u2019s written Word to resist the devil\\u2019s temptation.\\nSin, or going our own way against God, leads to death, so it makes sense that a loving God would not want us to sin. On our own, we can\\u2019t resist temptation. Only Jesus could do that, and He set us free from the power of sin when He died and rose from the dead. If we\\u2019ve put our trust in Jesus, we are totally forgiven for all our sin, and God empowers us to stop sinning. His Holy Spirit is in us, helping us turn away from sin and instead come to Jesus. He empowers us to stand against the devil with our offensive weapon: \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d (Ephesians 6:17).\\nWe can become more familiar with God\\u2019s written Word (the Bible) by reading it for ourselves and talking about it with other Christians. God calls us to be in community, reminding each other of His faithfulness and encouraging one another to resist temptation. And God gave us a promise in 1 Corinthians 10:13, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d\\nSometimes I submit to temptation because I don\\u2019t look for the \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153way out\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d that God has promised me. Yet I can always ask the Holy Spirit to help me be aware of when the devil is tempting me, and I can rely on Jesus to help me resist that temptation. God will do this because He is faithful to keep His promises. \\u2022 Sharon J. Morris\\n\\u2022 Sometimes we sin because we don\\u2019t trust that God will satisfy all our needs. When Jesus was in the wilderness, how did God meet His needs? \\nI have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11 (NLT)\\n\\xa0\\nRead Verses:\\nDeut.5.6-Deut.5.10|Acts.19.8-Acts.19.20|Heb.12.1-Heb.12.3|Exod.20.3'