No LIghtweight. 8/20/2019

Good Morning,

Here am I use me Lord, is my prayer today and my Coffee is Door County Peanut Butter Crunch. Tuesday it is and I hope it is a good one.

I Did you ever have one of those dreams where you find yourself either fighting with someone or running away from someone. No matter how many times you punch them or escape they just seem to return and nothing you do keeps them down.

Satan Tempts Jesus

4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. ³ Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

⁴ But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
⁵ Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’

and,

‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not ^[a]tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

⁸ Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, ^[b]“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
¹¹ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Today I want to talk about fighting with Satan. We are fighting spiritual warfare constantly and just when we think we have laid him out he returns. That should be no surprise to us. An example would be fighting off an addiction. Let's say alcohol is one that had you in it's grip and now you have been sober for a few years. Then someone in your life leaves you and you find yourself alone. The emptiness hurts and all of a sudden the urge to deaden the pain with one drink comes. You haven't wanted a drink in years, but now the urge is back. Give Satan his due. He knows you are hurting and are vulnerable right now. He waited a long time to throw this next punch in the battle for your life.

Satan decided to take Jesus on in the battle of wills and temptation. Jesus is the Son of God. Satan was so bold that he not only tempted Jesus once he had at it three times. So don't be surprised if Satan comes at you more than once and with consistency. But fear not Jesus fights for us and if we use the same battle implements like memorizing Scripture and reciting it while being tempted. we can chase Satan away.

John 16:33 New International Version (NIV)

³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

So my friends don't give in or give up. You have within you the Holy Spirit and all you need to keep fighting and not lose the battle.

Have a great day.

Marty