10 Mar March 8th Weekly Devotional
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 1 John 2:16
These are basically the three categories of temptations that Satan uses against us to get us to sin.
These are the same areas in which Satan tempted Jesus, yet He was tempted, but did not sin.
In Matthew 4, just after Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist, the devil came at Him with all these temptations after Jesus had fasted for 40 days, and He was hungry.
Satan first tempted Him with turning the stones into bread. This is the lust of the flesh. It is a craving for physical pleasure, comfort, physical gratification. Jesus’ answer: 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.'”
Satan, in Matthew’s account, then tempts Jesus with the “pride of life” temptation by taking Him to the top of the temple and tells Him to throw Himself down and the angels would come and save Him. This would tempt Jesus to show His own self-power, causing a miraculous spectacle bringing attention to Himself, but, Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'”
Then Satan tempts Jesus with showing Him all the kingdoms of the world, saying essentially, “Look here Jesus, you can have all these worldly things if you just bow down to me. This is the “lust of the eyes” temptation. However, Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'”
Jesus has experienced all of the same things that we will ever face in life, and He did it perfectly, giving us that perfect example that we are all to strive for in being like Him to the rest of the world.
By ourselves, we cannot achieve this, but with Him, we can do all things that He has instructed us to do. Believe in Him. You can do it.
So in this busy week, let’s conquer the temptations of the devil, and be like Christ. He will help us.
