Day 2 – We belong to God and need to develop our relationship with him

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: People do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.””

Matthew 4:1-4 (TNIV)

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered…”

Hebrews 5:7-8 (TNIV)

Yesterday we saw how important it is for to be born again, belonging to God and honouring him with what we do. So how do we know what to do in order to honour God?

You probably already know the answers – pray, read the bible and spend time with other Christians. God has given us the ability to do these things as our way of making real the idea of living for God.

That probably isn’t a surprise. But the bible shows us something amazing about how important this is. Not only is it essential for us, it was essential for Jesus and, according to Paul, Jesus learned obedience through what he did.

There’s a lot to learn from these verses – for example:

• We’re not the only people to be tempted, and we’re not tempted to do bad things because we’re bad people – Jesus was tempted too.
• Temptation is real, not imagined, and it can come to us when we’re weakest and most likely to give in.
• Temptation can sound sensible, like a good idea, not necessarily evil. But the devil’s agenda is to get us away from obeying and relying on God, and towards self-reliance and self-centredness. It’s not wrong to be tempted, but it is wrong to give in and disobey God.
• Jesus quoted scripture in response to the devil – even though he was an authoritative source of truth himself! This showed not only that he read and knew scripture, but that he used it as a direction, he obeyed what it said, and found support from it. In the same way, we need God’s word to direct us and, when we obey it, we’ll find it supports us too.
• The scripture Jesus quoted showed that God’s word doesn’t just guide us, it feeds us. It’s not just a good idea to read it – we need it to live.
• Jesus’ prayers were real and passionate. “Reverent submission” to his father was also needed.
• Prayer is not just a means for us to present our list of wants to God. It is meant to change our habits, helping us to learn a right attitude and submission to God.
• We never get to be good enough not to have to study and pray – Jesus had to do it.

To consider and pray throughout today

• When and how does God want me to pray?
• What have I learned from God in the last week? Today?