The Enemy's Tactics!

This week I was studying the temptation of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 4.  Several things struck me as interesting that maybe I had never thought of or that I had forgotten about. 

First, Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  When we are tempted, we often will say that God is nowhere around, but obviously God was there because the Spirit led Him, in addition to the fact that He is God in the flesh.  We act like we are hopeless and without ability to resist, and yet Jesus did resist because He was not alone, and neither are we.  My children recently drove me crazy with their response when I questioned them about why they had done something they were not supposed to do.  At different times for different offenses, each of them basically said, "Satan tempted me."  I was more infuriated rather than less, because that is so often the weak excuse we give, "The devil made me do it."  I agreed that he had tempted them but said that was not an excuse, because they were the ones who made the choice to listen and obey!

Then the tempter came to Jesus and said, "IF You are the Son of God,..."  The tempter knew very well exactly who Jesus was and what He was capable of doing, and yet he taunted Jesus by saying "if".  I will get to Jesus' response later.  But the tempter comes back a second time with "IF You are the Son of God..." and then proceeds to twist scripture.  Jesus responded to him again in the same fashion.  A third time the tempter comes at Jesus saying, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me." 

The tempter has not changed his tactics and yet we still fall for them.  He questioned Jesus' identity, and he questions ours as well.  "If you are really a Christian...."  "If you are really a child of God..."  "If you are really saved by grace..."  You fill in with whichever line he has used most on you.  Then he proceeds to twist the words of the Father, which he has done since approaching Eve in the Garden.  Then last but not least He makes promises that He cannot keep, and yet for some reason we think he can and will.  He promised Jesus the world, which was not really his to give.  He promises peace, an easy life, and pleasure, but all he brings is pain and grief and anything but peace. 

We must be wise to his tactics and learn from Jesus how to respond to him.  In each and every step of the temptation, Jesus quoted scripture to contradict what the tempter had said.  But that requires us learning and memorizing scripture, so that we are ready in the moment that we are tempted.  I have always wanted to learn more scripture but cannot say that I have always done the best job at carrying it out.  I was challenged anew this week to do that very thing and I would challenge you to join me, so that we might be ready for battle!  Take up your "Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."  Ephesians 6:17

"I knew you would not want me to go to there because I would be tempted."

Last Monday, we had a bit of a scare.  William had asked to go down to a friend's house when he first went outside.  He played down there for a while and then he began to go back and forth from playing elsewhere to playing out in front of our house.  When it came time to come inside to clean up, however, William was not to be found.  Rich had looked at the house that William had asked to go to and then called for him up and down the street while looking into the courtyards as he walked.  He checked next door which is a typical hang out for William as well.  Not finding him around here, Rich went over to another house a couple of blocks away.  Still not finding him, I texted our teammates to pray quickly that we would find him.  Rich went back to the beginning looked inside one of the houses where he had just looked at the courtyard.  Low and behold, William was found sitting inside the house watching cartoons on the television with the father of the family, despite no kids being around.  Needless to say we were thrilled to have him found and did have a talk about him needing to let us know where he was going if he changed from where he had already told us.  We also bought him a watch with an alarm, so that he would know what time to come home.

That night however as we talked about where he had been and the fact that he needed to let us know when he changed houses.  He said, "I knew you would not want me to go there because I would be tempted."  He had gone to that house before and just sat watching television.  When we send them outside to play, it is because they have had enough to watch and need to go play actively.  I pointed out that I would rather know where he was going and began to address that he obviously knew he should not go there if he did not want to tell me for that reason.

How often do we do that though?  We do not really want to talk to God about where we are going because we may get an answer that we do not want.  It may or may not necessarily be a temptation but not be exactly where the Lord wants us to be spending our time.  Maybe it is even a good place but it is not the best.  Maybe it is a place that is comfortable and the Lord wants to push us out of our comfort zone.  Maybe it is a place where we will be tempted and we do not want to run from the temptation.  Maybe we can say we can handle the temptation, but why do we test ourselves and then get mad at ourselves when we find ourselves giving into the temptation.  We would be wise to stay away from the place where we know we would be tempted.  How about you?  Are you talking to the Father about where you are going?