Luke 4

Posted on Mar 8, 2017 in Bible (NT) in a Year |

Wednesday

Talk about going from a mountain top experience right into the valley.
It certainly didn’t take the evil one any time to start stirring up trouble.  Jesus has been in the wilderness for 40 days and I would imagine that he is physically pretty weak. And now he is confronted by Satan. But even in this condition he is able to stand up to the devil. Now, look at this in verse – (vs 13) “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him (Jesus) until an opportune time.” I wonder what an opportune time would look like to Satan? A time when we are weak, vulnerable? Physically we know that Jesus must have been pretty weak, but what about spiritually? It says he went there full of the Spirit. So what kind of “opportune time” would he be looking for? Does he look for them in us? When would those times be for us? When we get behind in our prayer life, or devotions? When things are going well? Boy that seems like a time when Satan really likes to strike.
 

Here we have Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by the devil. I noticed something today as I read this. It says that for 40 days Jesus was tempted by Satan. I think that Satan never let up on Jesus during those 40 days. He was constantly looking for holes in Jesus’ armor. But the first verse of this chapter tells us just how Jesus was able to stand up to him. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit…” Not only was Jesus full of the Spirit, He was allowing the Spirit to direct His path. This is what we need to help us through those days when we feel attacked, when we feel like temptation is coming at us from all sides. Satan realized that he was not going to defeat Jesus at this point, so he leaves and looks for another more “opportune time”. So my question is, are we giving Satan “an opportune time”? Are we relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to help us stand up to the devil? Trust me, Satan is looking for “opportune times” to do his best to tempt us into sinning. But we have something much greater to rely on to help us. Just like Jesus – the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us.

Thankful for the Power of the Holy Spirit

Pastor Kathy