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 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.’” (Matthew 4:8-10).

This temptation that Satan presented Jesus with is what you and I deal with every day. Satan is the master of targeted marketing! He knows what we want, and he makes every effort to hand it to us on a silver platter. He makes it look so easy, so beautiful, so tempting. For example, he knew that Jesus had come to serve as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, so Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. What Satan did not seem to understand was that Jesus was already supreme ruler of all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. Why would he give that up to worship Satan? But Jesus knew that he did not need anything Satan had to offer. He was, and is, our King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

What do we want? What is our weak spot? Is it desire for more stuff, more popularity, more power, more recognition, more security, more thrills? My temptations are not the same as yours, but Satan knows what will make each of our mouths water for more and he is dishing it up on a silver platter. Once you are aware of this, it is more obvious. Satan is asking us to exchange the truth for a lie. He is asking us to worship something/anything that God created rather than the Creator Himself.

What we as believers must realize (and continually remind ourselves) is that we are already everything we want to be in Christ, and we already have everything we need in Christ. Of course, we are progressing in sanctification, and the journey is not easy. Jesus was already perfect, so he had different reasons for going through his trials. He was paying the price for our sins so that, despite all our efforts, we would not otherwise come up short. Without the work of Jesus on our behalf, we would never be able to throw off our yoke of enslavement to Satan. Although the reasons for our trials and testing differ from Jesus’s, they are vitally important to our relationship with God, both now and forever. “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only” (Matthew 4:10).

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Deuteronomy 5:6-7)

In Christ,

Judy