Post Sunday Devotional May 18 2008

Matthew 4:3 “…If…”

Short word. Two letters. If.

If I only would have stayed a few more minutes…

If I only would have kept my mouth shut…

If you would have done this for me, I would have…

If. Short word. Two letters. A whole ton of doubt.

Satan, our adversary, attacks Jesus not with flat out denial, but by attempting to place doubt in His mind. Flat out denial would have immediately caused a wall of defense to be constructed. Shedding doubt seems much more innocent, it is sly and it is deceptive. It causes one to lower one’s defenses so that the attack can then come unaware and undetected. The If(s) in life create anxiety. If questions all that you may have known (Jesus was told He was God’s Son in Matthew 3:17).

If. If is able to feed off its surroundings. If You are the Son of God. If you’re a son why are you abandoned out here in the wilderness? The desert is no place for God’s Son. Wild beasts? (Mark 1:13) This is no company for the Son of God. Hungry, try starving, 40 days and nights? If you were a son you would be properly fed.

If can do a lot of damage in our lives…if we allow it to. Are we quick to listen to the if(s) of doubt and uncertainty or will we instead listen to the if(s) of God’s certainty and strength?

Read Jesus’ “If” statement to us below…

Matthew 6:30 “Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

Will He not care for you? Is He not completing the work He began in you?

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”

Be confident, trust Him. Do not doubt that He loves You and fights for you.

Temptation loves when you are alone (Jesus was alone in the wilderness). Temptation could care less if you are having a “spiritual” moment (Jesus was fasting! Fasting is purposely removing something from your life, in this case food, in order to better focus on something else, in this case someone, God. Fasting is not a tool to get God to do what we want Him to do. It is rather something we should practice to rid ourselves of every other distraction so we can be better attuning to what He wants us to do and what He is doing.)

Temptation’s goal is to cause doubt and you and I are now faced with the questions: “Whom will I trust?” “What do I value most?”

Our adversary is not concerned with us simply falling to a particular temptation. Our adversary’s desire is to change our passion for God into a passion for self-fulfillment. Our adversary’s desire is to change our value system from one that relies on God to one that relies on self-values. Thus we will pursue what we are passionate about even if it causes us harm and we will choose what we value most even if it causes us harm.

That is why we are not told IF you will put on the whole armor of God. We are simply flat out told TO put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17). Our adversary is not one who fights fair and he waits to prey on us and plant doubt within us when we are weak, when we feel down, when we are hungry, when we are weary, when we have just fought with our spouse, our parents, our best friend and it is then that the adversary will begin to whisper…..If….

Short word. Two letters. A whole ton of doubt…..

Questions to Ask Yourself

What do you doubt most about God? Why?

What do you doubt most about yourself? Why?

I encourage you to have the courage to look into those doubts and remember that your adversary (Satan) seeks to destroy you so when he can create doubts about God within you he knows he is leading you away from life, not toward it. Remember that. God’s intentions for you are good and He loves you. Just because you are in the wilderness or hungry does not negate that. READ EPHESIANS 6:10-17 and remember that we are called into battle not away from it.


pastor e