From India

Dearly beloved in Christ,

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Praise be to our Lord, how wonderful is His love and how marvelous are His deeds!

James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” While living on this earth, our Lord Jesus showed us in practical ways not only to resist the devil but also to overcome him. Immediately after His baptism as led by the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus went to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Since the purpose of His coming was to do battle with the forces of evil, His first encounter before the start of the ministry was with the prince of evil himself. Temptation was also a preparation for His ministry, as had been His baptism. In baptism, He had received the Holy Spirit, a confirmation of His mission, while in His temptation, He received the strengthening from God, which came from trial and testing. It is a part of the discipline of God to make His loved ones perfect through trial and suffering.

 

It was precisely this part of our Lord’s mission that the devil attacked. The temptations were meant to divert our Lord from His task of salvation through sacrifice. Instead of the Cross as a means of winning the souls of men, Satan suggested three shortcuts to popularity. Jesus’ temptations were aimed at His identity as the Son of God, challenging Him to use His power for selfish desires of the flesh - turning stones to bread - to replace the suffering on the Cross with an effortless display of power - jumping from the temple, and to choose a much quicker way of establishing His Kingdom by striking up a treaty with Satan and worshiping him. (Matthew 4: 1-10) But Jesus responded consistently using the Scripture, asserting that man lives by God’s Word, not just bread, that one should not test God and that only God should be worshiped. This shows Jesus’ commitment to God’s will, refusing shortcuts to His mission.

Beloved, let Jesus be our role model. Let us overcome the devil and his temptations by quoting the Scripture. Let us defeat him by the power of the Lord Jesus, by His name and by the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Let us resolve to spend more time each day in Bible reading, meditation and prayer.

May the Lord give us His grace to do so.

Thank you for your prayers and support. 

God bless.

Yours in His service.

Pastor Pani and Team 

Uppahar, India