January 29, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be sorely tested by the devil. ” (Matthew 4.1)

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was sorely tested by the devil.” (Luke 4.1,2)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Many years back when I wrote on the “temptations of Jesus,” I alluded to the life of new believers. When they make that ultimate decision to give their lives to Christ because they recognized He gave His life for them, there was a great enthusiasm and an aura of joy about them. They are like seeds planted in shallow soil. They sprang up quickly and reached to the heavens with open arms ready to receive all they believed they needed from God. While they were aware of the call to discipleship, the moment of transformation for many was the hope of the end of an old life instantaneously and the beginning of a life free from previous trials as instantaneously. The problem was that while they were transformed, their world at various stages of toxicity was not. They desired the change and claimed faith in Jesus as the One who was changing them. As they passed through the baptismal waters and out the other side (in almost all instances they returned in the same direction as then entered in, there is a thought I had no considered previously), they did not fully embrace that now they were change agents, too. They were putting off the old and putting on the new. The “new” was Jesus Christ who never stopped being a change agent in the world that He created at God’s behest. Through Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself. For God, Christ was reconciling others to God the Father. It was the experience of “a child of God” speaking to those who had forgotten or never knew “they were children of God,” too. No one could speak to the children as could another child. In this we know the birth narrative of Jesus who is the Christ to be most significant. He came into the world as did each one of us. He lived on the cusp of rejection (the fetus of an unwed mother who was a virgin with child engaged to a man of the Law of God bound to fidelity born in a stable under the rule of a lawless man of murder who would stop at nothing to kill as many as possible until he finally killed the one who threatened him.) Of course, that threat continued throughout His ministry because His true enemy was the very one who attacked Him and His Father in Heaven. He was the very one who came to Him after His baptism seeking to supplant Him, uproot Him and cast Him into the fires of Hell to be condemned forever. Every new believer faces that same intentional temptation. None escape it. It may not happen as quickly for some as others, but the day comes when what the world believes and what the Kingdom knows battle for supremacy. Evil believes it will always win. Righteousness knows evil is a powerful enemy and too many are fragile and fall away like the seed sown on rocky ground or the hardened path.

This is why, I believe, we have the story of Jesus in the wilderness having His moment of decision to fulfill God’s destiny for all our lives sorely tested. It is meant to be an encouragement story. It is a realist story. Even God is not immune from the attack of Satan, the Devil, the fallen Lucifer. What a tragedy that there such hate and bitterness was born out of arrogance and jealousy even in that perfect Heaven. It happened because God’s love everywhere is bound to freewill and the right to make a choice on how one shall live one’s life whether in heaven or on earth. Jesus made choices in both places. He surrendered Heaven to come to choose us to be with Him in Heaven. He put His very life on the line, giving up all that He had in Heaven and on earth, for our sake. He was true love: “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may declare the truth, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13.3-8a) This is what Jesus lived for and died for. This spiritual ideal is what was the basis of the temptation He endured as He prepared Himself for battle as God’s child among God’s children leading them out of the wilderness of their lives and into the promised land of Heaven itself.

And Satan? Satan was the “quality control” inspector looking for chinks in the armor of the man of God. God believed in His Son or else He would never have asked Him to make the choice. In Him the Word had been placed so that He would not wander far from it. Satan did not. He knew God but he also knew the power of choice. He was the evidence of the power of choice. He knew it but refused to understand it. He thought he was free of God. But in the moment of testing, he would find that he would never be free of God’s sovereignty. That is why in the threefold test of Jesus in His newness of baptism and calling into the ministry of reconciliation, redemption and restoration, sovereignty was the last challenge according to Matthew. Of course, what Satan was asking of Jesus was to choose him over God. He wasn’t even shy about offering Jesus freedom from God. He was seeking an alliance between himself and the Son of God as the ultimate coup against Almighty God. But notice how Jesus responded to the promise of sovereignty in trade for worshipping/serving the will of Satan. As with the other two temptations which were not about God’s provision (food and safety), Jesus responded with the word of God. Further, notice (for those naysayers of the Old Testament authority) Jesus spoke to Satan with the command he was familiar with: “You should worship Yahweh Elohim alone and Him only shall you serve.” (Deuteronomy 6.13) We would do well, mighty ones of God, to respect the promise of sovereignty which is given to us by God in response to our fulfillment of the Law to worship and serve the Lord our God as Jesus Himself did. To do anything less is to dishonor, disrespect and disobey God who calls us His very own. Yes, we are His children who call and follow His Word by His Name. We are saved by His only begotten Son. In Him should we trust and Him alone.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.