Stress Test Devotional April 28
April 28, 2024
MATTHEW 4:5-7 CONTINUED
Are you tracking the strategies of the Evil One? Undermining our sense of God’s love and acceptance, attacking in moments of vulnerability, turning rightful desires into distracting obsessions, manipulating our desires to honor scripture, inducing us toward the suicidal path of trying to make God serve our purposes rather than submitting to his will—all of these are recognizable methods. Notice also that these temptation strategies occur in all kinds of locations from the wilderness to the holy city and the sacred temple. The Evil One is active within the precincts of God, within the church. These temptations are also community problems. We can become focused on our own ends, lose our grasp on scripture, substitute the material for the spiritual, or allow our confidence in God’s care and love and power to diminish.
Have you ever seen a church waylaid by temptations?
FAMILY TIME— Discuss when and under what conditions we are most vulnerable.
