Good morning everyone,

Luke 4:7,8-If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”

The temptation here is whether Jesus will be like Adam and Eve again and allow the temptation from the devil to be more appealing than lovingly obeying God. But Jesus coming to redeem us from that curse of sin, knew that what Satan can offer will always be tempting to our sinful desires, because he knows our weaknesses. Yet Jesus being sinless, maintaining perfect harmony with His Father, knew that Satan could not offer the joyous relationship with the Father He had.

I’m convinced that every struggle with the temptation to sin is won or lost by how much we value our relationship to be in peace with Jesus, in and through temptation. Jesus had no desire to compromise His relationship with the Father because He was perfectly One with Him, so no temptation could persuade Him away from the love He and His Father shared.

Though we can only strive to reach such perfect harmony in this life, there are so many "open doors" in our lives that Satan can tempt us with to worship him in his offering of different things. Though his "offers to worship" may satisfy our sinful desires, they can never equate to true joy, peace, and righteousness flowing from a harmonious relationship with Jesus.

When you find yourself in temptation think along the lines of a relationship being compromised, where you resist because of what you share together with Jesus. Though we still fail, we strive by His grace to be more faithful than ever.

In His Love, Ld