SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/3/2020
10:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The
Preparation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 4:1-2
Message of the verses: “1 Then Jesus was
led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. 2 For
forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.”
When
we look we look at the word temptation it is from the Greek word “peirazo” and this word is neutral, and
what I mean about this is that when Jesus was being tempted by the devil that
was not for good, but the same word can mean that God is testing us, and the
scriptural context clearly indicates the testing is an enticement to evil which
is surely what Satan had in mind. I am
not sure about this but I believe that this was also a testing from God, and He
knew for sure that His Son would past the test.
This temptation by Satan was surely not a surprise to God, as it was
part of His plan for His Son.
God
will often use Satan’s tempting to evil as His own means of testing for
good. Satan’s plan for Jesus was to lead
Him into sin and disobedience, and the Father used it to demonstrate the Son’s
holiness and worthiness. This is God’s
plan for all of His children. MacArthur
writes “Christians cannot be tempted in a way that God cannot use for their
good and His glory. James even tells us
to ‘consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials [peirasmos], knowing that the testing of
your faith produces endurance. And let
endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing’ (James 1:2-4). That
is God’s plan and purpose—to Satan’s temptations as a means of testing and
strengthening our faith in Him and our growing stronger in righteousness. God allows testing to our lives in order that
our spiritual ‘muscles’ may be exercised and strengthened. Whether the testing is by God’s initiative or
is sent by Satan, God will always use it to produce good in us when we meet the
test in His power.”
According
to James 1:13 and 14 which we will look at, God never tests in the sense of
enticing to evil “13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being
tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does
not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and
enticed by his own lust.” MacArthur
explains “All five of the forms of ‘to tempt’ in those verses are from peirazo, and all five indicate the
negative side of testing, the inducement to evil. God never has a part in the sort of testing,
but He can and will turn even the worst sort of testing into the right sort,
when it is surrendered to His will and power.
It is God’s great desire to turn into victory what Satan intends for
failure, to strengthen us at the very point where the adversary wants to find
us weak.”
Think
for a moment of when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, something that
was certainly sinful for them to do, something that they felt bad about it as
they had to keep this news from their father Jacob for many, many years. And yet we read the following in Genesis 50:20
“"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant
it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many
people alive.” Here we see in a nutshell
what we have been talking about as Joseph’s brothers meant it for harm to him,
but in God’s overall plan He made it work out for good as we see in Romans 8:28 “And
we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His
purpose.”
It
is believed that before the temptations that Satan imposed on Jesus that He was
in the wilderness fasting for forty days, so Jesus became weak in His
body. I want to say something about
fasting as I have done it a number of times.
The first time I fasted it was for a week or so, and this happened right
after I retired from my job in 1999. I
was 52 years old at that time and it was my desire to find out what the Lord
wanted me to do after retiring. I
studied about fasting for weeks before I decided to do the fast. I spent the time in my future son-in-laws
father’s cabin in the woods in Michigan.
My mind was as sharp as it ever was as I was reading a book by Charles
Swindoll. How I prepared for this fast
was to slow down my eating from three meals a day to two means a day and then
one meal a day and then the only thing that I had was water while I was
fasting. I can tell you that I became
weak, very weak while on this fast, but it was worth it to me. Now I did this once again some years ago when
I fasted for 22 day, and after the first week I had one class of tomato juice
per day along with water to drink. This
fast was more of a fast to lose some weight, and it was different because I had
much more energy, and I suppose that was because of the juice I drank each
day. Fasting can be boring if it is not
done for a purpose and the reason I say this is because we spend a lot of time
each day in eating, drinking, having snacks, preparing our meals and cleaning
up after each meal, and when you fast you do none of these things.
It
is my belief that Jesus did drink water while on His fast, for man cannot live
long without water and if this was done in a supernatural way then what good
would that do for man? I have read of
people fasting for as long as 90 day, on nothing but water. Once you are done fasting you will become
hungry, for when you are fasting you are not at all hungry after three
days. In my case I was not hungry from
the start because of how I prepared for the fast. Once you become hungry after fasting it is
time to eat and we read that after the 40 days that Jesus became hungry and
then He had to eat something or it would be called a starvation fast, not
eating after you became hungry. This is
what I believe about Jesus’ fast because of my study and because I have done it
myself, not for forty days but for long enough to learn what it is about.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is my desire to do another fast some day
and I pray that the Lord will guide me into when and where I should do this.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to continue to show me how to
defeat temptation from Satan and by like Jesus and not fall into temptation, to
continue to learn humility, and to continue to seek to have joy as I study His
Word.
2/3/2020 11:23 AM
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