Power and Pride

January 19

(Luke 4:5-7 NIV) ““The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. {6} And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. {7} So if you worship me, it will all be yours.””

(1 Timothy 6:9 NIV) “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

When Jesus was hungry, the devil tempted Him to make food for Himself. When Jesus declined, Satan laid the world before Jesus and offered Him power over everyone and everything. In both cases, the devil appealed to Christ’s sense of pride and power, encouraging Jesus to trust in Himself rather than God. Satan uses the same tactics today. The tempter still appeals to our sense of pride and power: “Did God really say you shouldn’t have this? You deserve it. You should take it. No one can stop you.” And so, we take it… but in the end, it takes us, and we fall. We fall because our pride gets bigger than our faith in God -- our sense of power outpaces our trust in God to provide. We must do what it takes to kill off the prideful spirit that lives inside us, and we must continually give our power back to God. One day at a time, we must submit to God, or we too will be numbered among the fallen. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day