Worship the Lord
Worship the Lord. In our devotional today, we finish the temptation of Christ by Satan. After taking Jesus up to a high mountain and showing Him all of the kingdoms of the world and their glory, Satan promised them to the Lord if He would but fall down and worship Satan. In Luke 4, Satan said, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
Matthew 4:8-10, NKJV
5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
Luke 4:5-8, NKJV
Worship the Lord
As in the first two temptations, Jesus answered with Scripture, You shall fear the LORD your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. (Deuteronomy 6:13, NKJV)
The question each of us needs to ask ourselves today is, "Is it worth
it?" If Satan gave us all of the kingdoms of the world and all of the
authority over them, would it be worth it to worship Satan and reject
Christ? No!
Even today, Satan uses the same temptations against all of mankind, and
sadly, most people say, "Yes!" to Satan. For a few pieces of candy
today, they reject all of the glories of the kingdom of God! Nothing we
could ever attain in this world, whether it be wealth, power, or glory,
will ever be worth losing the glories of the kingdom of God forever!
Yet, our pride fiercely defends our desire to have more. We truly want
it all--we want wealth, we want fame, we want glory, or maybe even, we
just want to be loved! Yet, it is better to go through all of this life
hated, than to trade an eternity with Christ for a few miserable years
of fame and glory.
Satan's temptation was so meaningless in the eyes of the Lord Jesus that
He did not even acknowledge his words. First, they were a lie, as are
all things promised to us by Satan. Satan only has what God has allowed
Him to have. All of the kingdoms of this world will perish, and only
what is of eternal value--what is truly already owned by Christ--will
last.
What will you do today? In a world that is quickly turning away from
God, and rejoicing in the glory of mankind, will you resist the
temptation to join the many who rush after pleasure and glory, or will
you adamantly, by God's grace, stand firm upon the truths of His Holy
Word.
It would be so much easier if this is a decision we could make just once
and be done with it, but the truth is that Satan persists day after
day, and will continue to do so for the rest of our lives on this earth,
hoping to lure you away from the truth. What can we do? Cry out to God,
daily, for the strength to resist the charms of this world and stand
true to God's Word.
Worship the Lord, and Him only, for in Him, alone, is truth, love, joy, peace, and happiness!
Devotional Reflections from the Bible
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