Devotional Song: ... Go to this link … Please take the time to take in a video created by Fernando Ortega singing the classic hymn … I Need Thee Every Hour, declaring our need, in the daily battles of life, of a Savior to save us from the temptations of our very powerful enemies.
Highlight Passage Matthew 4: 3-4 [NKJV] …
3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” … 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” [Deut. 8:3]
… Jesus’s weapon against Satan’s temptations was God’s truth; and it ultimately caused Satan to flee from the confrontation …
============
Highlight Context - Matthew 3: 16-17, 4: 1-11 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus, after He had been baptized by John the Baptizer and affirmed by God’s Spirit was led by the Spirit into a battle, being tempted directly by Satan
============
Reference Passage #1 - Psalm 119: 9-11 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Having God’s word as our sword is the only way to fend off our enemy’s temptations as Jesus did when He was tempted …
Reference Passage #2 - Ephesians 6: 17 [NKJV] …
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; …
... God’s word is the only offensive weapon we have to use in battles against our spiritual enemies …
Reference Passage #3 - 1st John 2: 15-16 [NKJV] …
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
… Avoiding sin requires avoiding these three areas of temptation …
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Keila Ochoa, took the ODB readers seekers [me] back to a powerful lesson which Jesus taught when our Lord confronted the temptations of Satan in the wilderness, documented in both the Gospel accounts in the early verses of both Matthew and Luke. And the story is also a powerful lesson in how to do battle in the spiritual warfare we face in life.
I don’t think that any Christian would deny that we will face the temptations of our spiritual foes every day of our lives. So, how do we fend off the attacks which will come our way. Well, I’ve learned that using Jesus’ battle strategies is the best way to avoid what John wrote about as the three areas of temptation we will face (see 1st John 2: 15-16 copied above). And they are exactly the same three areas of temptation faced by Jesus when he was confronted in the wilderness by Satan (see the Matthew 4 passage linked above). In fact, in studying this highlight passage, we see that Jesus had just been baptized and blessed by God’s Spirit [see Matthew 3: 16-17], Who then led the Lord into the wilderness for this battle with His arch enemy.
And it’s here that we can see Jesus, The Christ, take on Satan and defeat the enemy with one primary weapon; and that is God’s word. Three times, in those areas of temptation outlined in 1st John 2: 16, Satan tempted Jesus; and three times Jesus declared “It is written,” using what Paul called the “sword of the Spirit” (see Ephesians 6: 17); and I think it’s safe to say, dear friend, … “if it’s good enough to for Jesus, it’s good enough for us!!” If Jesus used God’s word to fight off the strongest of our spiritual foes, don’t you think that’s the battle strategy we need to use?
And God actually presented this strategy in an ageless poetic testimony to the power of God’s word to do battle in life, when the Psalmist wrote of the power of God’s word to fend off sin (see Psalm 119: 9, 11 linked above). And I pray today that all reading with me here have God’s word primed and ready in our hearts to use whenever Satan, the world, or our flesh come against us in battle. Without a sharpened and well-practiced sword of the Spirit, ready and waiting for battle, we will be all too vulnerable to Satan.
So, prepare for battle. Sharpen your sword. Practice your swordsmanship; and let’s go to do battle today for the glory of God.
My Prayer Today: Lord, I carry Your sword into battle today. Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
No comments:
Post a Comment