MATTHEW 4:1 – Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

THEME OF THE DAY. YES, HE WILL TEST US. We need to establish two things before we go into “the meat” of today’s nugget. First, the temptation of Jesus itself. Obviously, this was not a temptation to sin. Jesus could not have sinned so we are not dealing with the devil attempting to get Jesus to disobey His Father. Oh, the devil, in the insanity of his nature, may have thought so, but it was fool hearted for there was no ability in Jesus to sin. This is a distinction we need to make about the word “temptation.” We may read the word “temptation” or “tempted” in our Bibles and immediately think about “tempted to sin.” That is not always the case. Often the word is translated “to test” as it is with Jesus. The second thing we need to establish is that God will test us. He did with His Son and He will do so in every one of His children. He must because we need testing and that for two reasons.

First, a testing of our faith affirms the presence of real faith. There is a distinct difference between making a profession of faith in Jesus based on an emotional experience or appeal and making a profession of faith in Jesus because of genuine conversion. We likely know people who made a profession of faith in Christ, were all excited about the Bible, were faithful to church, served in ministry, even had zeal to share the Gospel, but sadly, they fell away from the faith. Maybe even walked away from the faith. Maybe even denied the faith. And often this sad falling away and denial occurs because a severe test came into their lives; a loss of a loved one, financial setback, sickness, and a host of other things causing one to question the love and goodness of God. When those times come, true faith will endure the test. It may struggle, but it will not fail. A false faith will get angry at God leading to a walking away from God. True faith will pass the test, no matter its duration or intensity.

Next, the testing of faith deepens our faith. Remember the great test God gave Abraham in Genesis 22? God told him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. How do we think Abraham felt as he walked up the mountain knowing his beloved son was about to be slaughtered, by him, on an altar? Talk about the severe testing of one’s faith. Now, fast forward to when God provided the sacrifice and Isaac was spared. I think the walk down the mountain found Abraham with a much more confident faith in God than when he went up. And it will be the same for us too. If we trust God in the most difficult of testing, we will come through with a stronger faith and closer walk with the Lord.

God develops His people’s faith through the hearing of the Word and the testing of their faith (Romans 10:17; James 1:2-4). If we learn to see these truths, we will not only grow strong in the faith, but also be better equipped to help our brothers and sisters as they struggle through the testing of their faith. We will be able to come alongside them with encouraging words testifying of God’s faithfulness to us in our times of testing.

PRAYER: “Lord, help me to respond to Your testing of my faith so that I might grow in the faith.”

QUOTE: “We need trials. Without them, we will not grow in our faith and in our likeness to Jesus.”