This devotional is the first of two written by students from our GBC 412 Student Ministry.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give to you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" Then the devil left him, and the angels came and attended him. Matthew 4:1-11
In my 17 years of life I have lived two very different lives. The first 16 years of my life, I was defeated by sin. I gave into sin and did what ever Satan wanted me or tempted me to do. If I was in Jesus' place in the passage I would have crumbled and given in. I did not know how to fight back, and frankly, I did not want to. But about a year ago something changed. While at a youth conference in Ocean City, I was broken before God and refused to lose another battle to sin. Now I face sin every day, but with God by my side, I defeat it.
As I grew stronger in Christ the temptations continued to grow, as well. These temptations were very nice things and fun stuff. Jesus was tempted with all the kingdoms of the world (verses 8-9), but He turned to the Word to counter the temptation. I try to go back to the Word but I am not that familiar with the Bible to come up with a Biblical counter for everything. I get a lot of my "weapons" from the music I listen to. Bill and Sarah Rodriguez got me hooked to a group of guys who are Christian rappers. The things they say in their music, spiritual and based on Scripture, became my "weapons" when faced with temptation, along with prayer and reading the Bible. It does not matter what you use as a spiritual "weapon," the point is that you have one to fight back with.
We will be faced with sin every day of our lives. It is unavoidable, but if we look to God for guidance, if we read the Bible, if we pray, if we surround ourselves with Christian friends, than we have already won the first battle. Satan is going to find every way he can to make sure we do not do these things. Every morning I wake up and read my Bible. But some mornings all I want to do is just go back to bed. But I fight and open my eyes and read. I do not allow Satan to control me.
The second battle is we need to act. Prayer, the Bible, and God will give us the answers, but we need to act on them. Jesus acted. Verses 4, 7, and 10 say that Jesus turned to the Word. He repeatedly says, "It is written..." Jesus chose a "weapon" and used it to defeat sin. Whether we turn to the Word, turn to music, or just run away we need to act. We cannot allow sin to persist. We need to stop the temptations, stop the lies, stop the ridicule, stop the sexual sin, stop the evil thoughts. We need to have a victory over sin.
Sin is all around us. It is in every store we enter. It is at every school we attend. It is on every street we drive. Sin is everywhere. The hardest thing we will ever have to do in this world is to defeat sin. The best weapon we have against sin is our faith. Constantly praying and reading the Bible is the best way to prepare ourselves for the on-coming battle, but we have to act. We have to make the choices. Reading and praying can help our decision making. It can give us the answers, but we make the decision of whether to sin or not. We need to defeat sin, and if we do we will grow closer to God and grow stronger in our faith. So I ask you… Are you ready for the war?
~Tim Minnick
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