“Jesus answered him, “It is also written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” Matthew 4:7
On the second temptation that the devil presented to Jesus he tried to get Jesus to jump off of a high temple and trust God to catch Him. The devil even used some scripture stating the God would have His angels take care of Him. Jesus answered with another Scripture from Deuteronomy 6:13, that you are not supposed to put God to the test.
The devil was trying to get Jesus to test God in a negative way. He was trying to get Jesus to do something God did not tell Him to do. Jesus later states that He can only say and do things that He sees His Father in heaven doing. In a sense this severely limits what He can say or do.
God only gave one thing that you can do to test Him. That one thing is in giving of your tithes. With giving of tithes God says do it and try Him to see if He will not open the storehouses of heaven and bless you abundantly. Outside of that you are not supposed to test God.
Testing God in this way puts you as the one in control. If God had to bail you out of every situation you put yourself in, with no change of your heart, you would be able to sin on purpose and God would have to bail you out with no repentance.
You would be the one calling the shots. Remember God is the one in absolute control of everything, not you. As a believer, you must allow God to call every action and word you do and say. God has to be completely in control of you.
The devil was not trying to do this. He was trying to set Jesus up. Even today, the devil will try to get you to do things God has not called you to do.
Keep yourself immersed in the scriptures so that you will know what God desires of you. You will see the temptations the devil will bring your way. You can use the scriptures to combat the temptation. God’s Word is alive and active, use it today. Do not use just a part of the scripture as the devil did, but the whole of scripture.
I pray today that God will open your eyes to temptations set before you; that God will help you recall His Words to you; that you will read, study and know God’s Word in your heart; that you will use His Word daily as your guidance; and that God will give you victory over all temptation.
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