Friday, November 9, 2012

The Devil has the Bible memorized. Do you?

So this is really weird that I am posting three days in a row but I had to write and share what God taught me this morning while reading His word, if nothing more than that I'll remember this lesson for years to come.

I was reading in Matthew chapter 4; the part of the Bible where Jesus has gone into the desert and Satan comes to tempt him three times.  I was reading through it having read these words probably at least a hundred times if not more and thinking before I even read them, I know this, Jesus wins and tells Satan to bugger off. But today I got a new light of thought while reading through this part of the scriptures.
Have you ever noticed while reading this part that Satan is quoting scripture to Jesus? Yes he is, he actually is quoting scripture to Jesus to try and get him to fall into the temptation.  Then it hit me. Do I know the difference between Satan's voice and God's? And Do I know the Bible better than Satan? I mean Satan knows the scriptures. He knows what they say by heart, he doesn't even hesitate to use it against the Savior why would he hesitate to use it to tempt us into thinking we are doing something wonderful for Christ by quoting scriptures to get us side tracked.
I now think I am understanding the spiritual battle a little better this morning now more than I did. If Satan knows the scriptures that well to feel comfortable enough to use them to fight Jesus then he is way more than comfortable enough to fight me with them as well.  He knows that I do not have the scriptures memorized near the way Jesus does and from what I can tell I don't have them memorized even as good as the devil does, honestly I had to look up the scripture he quoted to Jesus to find out where it was. I get why it is so important to memorize the scriptures and to understand them better, it's because Satan is capable of fighting our hearts and minds with scriptures to make it sound like we are hearing a voice that is not actually God's. When we memorize our Bible and hide God's word in our hearts and seek God's face and counsel we too can then be like Jesus and know the difference between Satan's temptations leading us off the right track and God's voice leading us to the path of righteousness.

1 comment:

  1. Really good thoughts.
    "Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee."
    Jesus overcame temptation with scripture and we can learn from Him and do the same.
    Nice post.

    ReplyDelete