When the devil had ended all the temptations, he left Jesus for a while and went away.
Luke 4: 13 (LB)
Scripture: Luke 4: 1-13
As a human, Jesus experienced what we experience. That includes being tempted by Satan. This devotion looks at Satan’s temptation of Jesus and us.
The Bible tells us that Satan tempted Jesus when He was alone in the wilderness. Luke 4: 13 said that Satan “…left Jesus for a while and went away” (LB). Does Satan ever give up tempting us?
When I was growing up, I misunderstood this verse. Oh, I got the first part where it says Jesus went through all the temptations that we go through. Don’t get me wrong. It was easy to say, “Well, there is no way Jesus was tempted this way.”
But that really isn’t right. He did go through everything we go through. He not only went through the temptations growing up, He had a major temptation session right before He began His ministry. Satan threw everything at Him, but Jesus didn’t waiver. He stayed true to God.
Silly me thought that, after Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Satan. I’m God’s Son. I’m ready to start my ministry,” Satan left Him alone. Wrong, moose breath. He left Him alone for a while.
I’m sure Satan kept hounding Jesus, just like he hounds us. He’s not willing to give up that easily on us. Why would he just give it one shot with Jesus?
Satan had a lot more to gain by getting Jesus to give in. I’m sure he knew about God’s redemptive plan. Satan knew that if Jesus died and rose again as the sacrifice for our sin, his war was lost forever.
So, Satan has a lot more to lose if Jesus didn’t give in than he does if we don’t give in. It doesn’t follow that he would give up that easily.
But since that is the only recorded confrontation between Jesus and Satan, we try to convince ourselves that after we make the choice to follow Jesus, Satan will ride off into the sunset and leave us alone, also. We think once we give our lives to Christ, it will be smooth sailing. Wrong.
Then we think once we win the battle on something, the topic will never come up again. Nope.
Or we think, that after we have had a few mountain-top experiences, Satan will go away and leave us alone. In our dreams.
Satan doesn’t give up on hounding us, either. He knows he has lost us for eternity, but he can still try to get us back during this life. He keeps on trying to get us to sin, so he can wreck our witness for Jesus.
Besides, why would Satan want to make our lives miserable if we hadn’t of given our lives to Christ? We would still belong to him and this world. He only gets to come after us guns blazing after we have given our lives to God.
Sometimes, Satan even pretends to be the voice of God. He figures that he can get us to doubt God’s Word and gentle nudging in our lives.
But when we put our trust and faith in God through believing in His Son, God will pull us through the situation. Intact.
We just don’t always understand that, though. We look at the promises in God’s Word and stick to those like super glue. We don’t want to see any of the bad stuff.
But we continue to be tested just like Jesus was. He remained true to God. Isn’t that just one more way we can pray to be like Jesus?
Heavenly Father. You sent Your Son to restore our relationships with You. Satan tries his best to break up our fellowship. We try to tell ourselves that our temptation experiences are unique. But they aren’t. You also sent Jesus to be an example for us in our walk. Help us to be more like Jesus. Help us to resist Satan’s temptations. Help us to stay true to You. Amen.
What do you think? When do you feel that Satan tempts you the most? At your highest point or at your lowest point in your walk? Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
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