I'll Be Back

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

I’LL BE BACK

Luke 4:13

13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

NIV

This verse seems rather straight forward that the devil tempted Jesus in those three areas and we know Jesus resisted, so he left, for the time being, until he could find another opportunity to tempt him again. What better life lesson could we have? The devil will come around us with some temptations and if we resist him when he does he will leave us alone, for a while that is. We can be sure he will be back when the time is better to tempt us again. How can we deal with temptation without recalling what James says about when we are tempted by our own evil desires we are dragged away and enticed? We also should mention what Paul told the Corinthians about when we are tempted God will not allow us to be tempted with more than we can bear and that he will also provide a way out so we can stand up under it. So whether we are tempted by the devil or our own evil desires, the fact is we are tempted, and it appears we are never finished with temptation. One way or another more temptation is coming our way. The example we have here is that the devil did in fact leave Jesus alone. This again would agree with what James had to say, that if we submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, he will flee from us. But when he does flee, it will not be forever, as he fled from Jesus, but only until another opportune time. So let us not deceive ourselves and think we are done with temptations. We should not lie to ourselves, that we are free of sin, for sin is the result of yielding to some temptation, and if we think we are finished with yielding, we have just yielded to the temptation of pride. We need to realize that the devil will never quit trying to get us to yield to some temptation and we are, because of our own evil desires, most likely to yield occasionally. That is not to say we are living a sinful life as we did before we accepted Christ, but we cannot say that we never fail, that we are as perfect as Jesus and always overcome those temptations. But when we do, we also know that God will provide a way out, which is of course Jesus. If we are in Christ, if we are believers, Jesus is our salvation, he has already paid the price for our sin. This payment was not just for that sinful life before being in Christ, but it is for each and every time we fail to resist the devil or our own evil desires, even after we have accepted Jesus as our Savior. The point is temptation will always be a part of this life and we will be faced with it until we step into eternity. We need to accept that fact, but also that we should do everything in our power to resist it. The best way, is with the example Jesus just gave us, use the word of God. If we have the word of the lord hidden in our heart, when we are tempted we can use that word to overcome that temptation. But we also need to know what temptation is, as it comes in many forms. We cannot fool ourselves into thinking certain attitudes and or behaviors are not sin because of yielding to temptation. Each of us can name a few or many, but most likely we forget about some attitudes or behaviors being sinful. So let us be honest and face those temptations head on, resisting through the power of the Spirit, but understanding the devil will be back. He will leave us, but he will tell us, “I’ll be back”