Life Capsule for Today Date: 2nd June, 2023
Theme: The Temptation of Jesus (6)
Memory Verse:Matt 4:1
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.KJV
Topic: Being tempted but not yielding
Bible Reading: Prov 4:23
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.KJV
Rom 12:2
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. KJV
Words of the Ministry
Through the week, we have been looking at the temptation of Jesus and we have tried to draw some life lessons from it, one of the central thoughts we emphasized was that regardless of our level of spirituality, the devil still comes tempting. We may never outgrow temptation but we should outgrow so many factors that make us sin. Our sanctification and transformation is a measure of growth over temptation, as we walk with the lord, we discover that certain things don’t really matter anymore. That is growth in life, becoming like Jesus every day.
Today I like to comment on the place of Jesus’ temptation. We would notice that from the passage in Mathew 4, about 3 locations were mentioned, on the mountain to turn stone to bread, at the peak of the mountain to cast himself down and lastly at the pinnacle of the temple where he saw the glory of the world and was asked to bow in worship. When we read this, we may think, the devil took a man that has fasted for forty days without food on a long journey, no, the whole trip occurred in his mind, with our mind, we can cover distances faster than light.
Jesus teaching on anger and adultery (Mat 5.22,28) said we commit sin when we execute the sin in our mind. The mind is the most important battle ground, the devil tempted Jesus in his mind, all the locations he visited was done in his mind, little wonder the bible encourages us to renew our minds (Rom 12.2). When such tempting thought is planted in our mind, the devil then wants us to love it with our heart, once we do, we have participated in it and have sinned willfully. A simple illustration is that of sexual immorality, when it comes as a suggestion or thought from the devil, it is for us to rebuke it reminding the devil we are the temples of God but when we accept the thought and begin to imagine the ecstasy in our mind, loving it in our heart, we sin against God. That was the problem of the old creation; they could not have victory over the devil in their mind hence they sinned against God regularly. One can imagine someone like David, a psalmist, a man of prayer but he couldn’t overlook the temptation of Uriah’s wife because his mind was not renewed.
God has made provision for us to overcome by writing his laws in our minds and in our hearts (Heb 10.16), by so doing, we not only know and understand his laws with our mind, we love to obey it also with our hearts. We saw Jesus doing this, when he was tempted to bow to gain the world (Mat 10.4), Jesus quoted Exodus 20.3, the law of God not just on tablets of stones but written on his mind and heart. So we see a difference, in the old testament, the law was external and they needed to do external things to sin but in the new testament, its internal and all we need to do is to look inward and find help.
Victory is assured over temptation for all believers who maximizes the power of the Holy Spirit within them. When God said he was writing his laws in their heart and mind, he meant he was putting the Holy Spirit within believers because the finger of God is the Holy Spirit (Luk 11.20 + Mat 12.28) and he has promised no temptation beyond what you can bear would come your way (1 Cor 10.13). We must therefore consult the Holy Spirit when we feel tempted, beyond prayers and word study, the very present help in times of need is within us and he is able to keep us from falling (Jude 1.24), amen.
Bible In One Year: Ezra 3-5
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