TODAY IS…

an awesome day to think about the goodness of Christ.

“When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left Him until the next opportunity came.”  Luke 4:13 NLT

As Jesus lived His life, He was exposed to temptation time and time again, just as we are today. But at no time was the onslaught of temptation as intense as it was when He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness north of the Dead Sea.

For 40 days, Jesus was tempted by satan. For 40 days Jesus ate nothing. Satan’s offers became increasingly more appealing. He offered Him food; he offered Him riches; he challenged His birthright and pressured Jesus to test God’s love. Jesus turned to God instead for strength to resist the temptations before Him during His time in the Judean wilderness and at the temple back in Jerusalem.

When the devil was finished – when he had given the temptation of Jesus his best shot – he left Him. But he would come back time and time again throughout Jesus’ life. And time after time, the goodness of Jesus would help Him to resist temptation.

Every time.

How many of us can make the same claim? The answer is simple: none of us has resisted temptation every time. There are most definitely those who are better at it than others, but we have all given in. The results of our giving in to temptation have probably not been as devastating as the results of Eve’s bite of the apple, but every time we give in to temptation, satan wins a little victory.

It is outside the scope of our power as human beings to deny satan every victory. But it is our responsibility as Christians to do our best and deny him as many times as we can. We must strive for the incredible goodness of Jesus and we must turn constantly to God for strength to fight back when we are attacked.

Only Christ is perfect.

The rest of us are sinners. Looking to the goodness that is Jesus can help us to deny victory to satan. It will never be easy, and sometimes denying victory to satan will require sacrifice on our part.

But through it all, God will help us stand strong, if we follow the example of Jesus and turn to Him when faced with temptation.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson