Central Truth

We can only truly worship God when we are in His will. Satan tries to confuse us about what is worthy of our time, energy, and devotion.

Reflections

I spent a summer on a mission trip with a Native Canadian tribe in British Columbia. A leader of the tribe told my teammate and me a story about two elders of the tribe who attempted a creative way to quickly prepare one of their favorite foods which was tripe, or cow's stomach. The elders decided to surprise their wives by speeding up the process of cleaning and preparing this delicacy. They thought it much more efficient to place the stomach with all of its contents in one of their wives' washing machines. Unfortunately, this caused the washing machine to freeze up and burn out the motor. Needless to say, the elder's wife was very surprised and you can imagine her reaction to her husband's creative time-saving measure.

While this is an amusing story, each of us can probably think back to our attempts, in our own efforts, to solve a problem that went horribly wrong and without funny consequences.

Jesus came to do the will of His Father which was a longer and harder process than using the short-cuts with which Satan attempted to entice Him. Each of Satan's 'suggestions' was an attempt to sidetrack Jesus from following God's will and worshiping God only. Jesus responded to each temptation by quoting His Father's will for Him. Satan knew that Jesus was hungry, was the Messiah, and cared about all nations. Satan's short-cuts attempted to make Jesus prideful, to test God's protection over Him, and to violate His relationship with His Father. Jesus knew that true worship of God is only done by trusting and being obedient to God's will.

I've come to realize that trying to meet my own needs or serve God in my own strength only leads to disaster and doesn't bring God glory or worship. Jesus' response to temptation can be summed up in an old hymn: "When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey."

Discussion Questions

1. Have you asked God to meet your needs and/or show you if they are in His will to be met?

2. With what short cuts have you been tempted in order to meet your needs or to serve God?

3. Is God calling you to do something that will require you to ignore your own solutions in order to trust and obey Him?