Tag: temptation and sin

Victory!

Luke 4

Sunday, December 11, 2022


Temptation is a struggle that humanity has been at war with since the beginning of time. Temptation changed our world from a perfect paradise with no sin and no pain to a broken world full of flawed people. It was a result of the first human succumbing to the pressure of temptation that there hasn’t since been a single human capable of fully breaking free from the grasp of sin – constantly giving in to temptation, and consistently turning away from God and rejecting His love.


Until Jesus.


When Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 3, they failed massively, and their failure brought misery upon the entire earth (not to say that anyone else, if put in the same situation, wouldn’t have eventually made the same choice and given in to temptation). When Christ was tempted, on the other hand, he triumphed. His victory over temptation was a victory over Satan, bringing hope to all humanity for a day when we can be free from the bondage of sin. For a day when the world is not only set back to the state it was in at the beginning of time, but a state unfathomably better. Under Adam we were slaves to sin, but through Christ we have been set free.


As broken humans living in a broken world, we are just as susceptible as Adam to the call of evil, and temptation lurks all around us. But just as we have the failure and weakness of Man within us, we also have the hope and grace of God through Christ who sets us free. We have the power to overcome, and to stand firm in our identity as a child of God as Jesus did in the wilderness.

-Isabella Osborn

Reflection Questions

  1. What 3 things did the devil use to tempt Jesus in Luke 4? How did Jesus respond to each temptation?
  2. What are your 3 biggest temptations? How can you use the same power Jesus used to overcome these temptations? Think specifically.
  3. Do you more often see yourself as a child of Adam (and all humanity), or a child of God?
2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload

Watch Your Step

Proverbs 4

Have you ever seen the videos of people walking down a street when suddenly they fall in a construction hole? They were too busy watching their phone screen that they did not look where they were going. Because they were not watching, they stumbled and fell into something that was well marked as being dangerous. Maybe you have experienced something like this yourself.

Sometimes in life we can be like this. In our walk of faith, we don’t pay attention like we should. Something other than the path draws our attention and we stumble. In those videos, the person usually walks right into a construction zone that is marked with bright orange cones and construction tape. It is not a secret that what they are walking into is dangerous. However, they refuse to look at their path and keep walking regardless.

Proverbs 4:25-27 tells us to look ahead and to keep our eyes fixed on the path ahead. When we allow our eyes and our thoughts to be distracted by other things, we are more likely to fall into the pit. We need to instead put our eyes away from such distraction and turn to the LORD. We need to keep our eyes on Him and His Word so that when temptation comes our way, we can see it and turn from it. Just as Proverbs reiterates, we need to listen to instruction. Instead of ignoring the warning signs, we need to avert our path away from them. We need to follow the directions that guide us away from the hole. We need to keep our eyes on the path.

-Hannah Deane

Today’s Bible reading passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – 1 Kings 21-22 and Proverbs 4

2021-seekgrowlove-bible-reading-plan-1Download