Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – 2 Chronicles 1-5
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 4:8
Jesus: Get out of My face, Satan! The Hebrew Scriptures say, “Worship and serve the Eternal One your God—only Him—and nobody else.”
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Have you ever gotten into one of those situations that you just knew Satan was trying his best to trap you into doing something you knew was wrong? I know I have. He seems to know just what buttons to push for each of us. He knows the things that we like and dislike. He knows what makes us tick. He is an angel, a fallen one, but one of God’s created angelic beings nonetheless. So Satan has some powers that we do not understand or can even begin to comprehend.
So Satan knows exactly how best to approach us to entice us with the things that will turn us away from God. Satan had already tried to lure Jesus by trying to get Him to satisfy His physical desires through means Jesus knew were wrong. Now Satan asks Jesus to shortcut the path His Father had asked Him to take by worshiping Satan and thereby gaining political power over the world. But Jesus also knew the shortcut didn’t meet the demands the Father asked of Him. And to worship a fallen angel, or an angel of any sort, would violate the Fathers command.
Satan knew this mission was a weak point for Jesus. Our Savior wants the whole world to bow to Him and recognize Him as Savior and Lord. But He wants everyone in the world to come to Him as Lord as their choice, not as a dictator with the political power to force them to do so. The shortcut Satan offered Him would not suffice. It took away the power of choice for God’s greatest creation and He would not do that. Nor would Jesus, the man, worship anyone other than the Father.
So when Satan pushes that sensitive button, when He offers something that would entice Him to get off the path His Father laid out for Him to follow, Jesus does something we should we should emulate often. Listen to those first few words again: “Get out of my face, Satan!”
When is the last time you uttered those words? When is the last time you even thought those words in your head? I think we’ve gotten so sophisticated in our understanding of scientific principles and knowledge of the universe that we forget there is a real heaven and a real hell. A real fallen angel the Bible calls Satan, the father of lies. We forget there is a created being who rebelled against God and is trying his best to capture our souls and turn us away from God, too.
We, in our modern, what we think as an intelligent world, forget that Satan still roams the earth like a lion seeking those he can devour.
The good news, though, is that Satan is weak compare to our God. And Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10, “Any temptation you face will be nothing new. But God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can handle. But He always provides a way of escape so that you will be able to endure and keep moving forward.”
Our problem is two-fold. First, we don’t look for those ways of escape. We don’t look for the exit signs. We don’t try to get away from the temptation or do things to keep from getting into those situations in the first place. We too often just let Satan beat on us with those same temptations and think we can stand there and take it for as long as he can dish it out. We can’t. Remember, Satan knows which buttons to push. He knows our weak spots and those are the ones he will go after.
But sometimes, we just can’t find an exit, or there isn’t one. There wasn’t an exit for Jesus in the desert that day. He was there. Satan was right there in front of Him. Satan was doing his best to push Jesus’ buttons and get Him to take a shortcut, skip over the tough parts of His Father’s journey for Him, take the easy road to success. Jesus saw that He couldn’t leave that desert place quite yet, so He did the next best thing. Did you get it? He rebuked Satan with those very precious words that we just don’t use enough, “Get out of My face, Satan!”
So what do you think would happen if the next time you faced a really tough temptation you did what Jesus did and yelled, “Get out of my face, Satan!” I bet if you’re not alone, you’ll get some pretty strange looks, for one. But I also bet that whatever is going on around you will take a quick stutter step and give you an opportunity to get out of there pretty fast. It’s amazing what happens when you call a spade a spade. People don’t like the truth sometimes and when you’re in the middle of something you know is wrong and call it what it is, it’s amazing how many others you will help by lending them your strength and keeping them from going down that path, too.
Jesus teaches a great lesson for us, today. When the tempter comes, get ready with your response, “Get out of my face, Satan!” With Jesus on your side, he will.
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