Testing the Lord  –  2021.04.20

Testing the Lord  –  2021.04.20

It is also written:
Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
Matthew 4:7

The devil tempts Jesus with all the tricks that normally work on people. Now he wants Jesus to work a miracle so that everyone will believe in Him: “Throw yourself down from the highest pinnacles of the temple and no harm will come to you, as the Bible says!” – But Jesus replies: You shall not tempt God.
What do we do? How often do we pray, like the devil here: IF you are the Son of God, then ….. Or: IF you love me, then …. IF you are with me, then ….. This IF already shows very clearly the source of our prayer. The devil tempted Eve with similar words.
We as Christians often pray a Christian spell or magic. This is when we want to make the gods merciful through rituals and formulae. We promise God everything so that He will act according to our will, we want to convince Him with our arguments to act as we think is right. We are masters in “false” prayer!
And we want to put God to the test by testing His patience and love. Always a little more sin and a little more …..  I’ll stop tomorrow, but as for today, …..
Do you notice how much this playing with sin is in itself a sin? How little do we respect the Holy God! How can He say yes to our prayer? How can He bless our lives? HE will keep silent. And we may suffer the consequences of our sin ourselves.
However, there is one exception. If a person does not know God at all and asks very carefully: “God, give me a sign! I don’t know if you exist!” – Then God responds to this serious enquiry, which comes from the depths of our hearts. We are allowed to test the goodness of God! But we must not play with it.
How good that God has so much patience with us and slowly, step by step, brings us closer to faith. How good that He forgives so much that we may not even know! Yes, our God is wonderful!

Thank You Jesus for being so patient with me! How often have I wanted to use You because I was too lazy. Oh Lord, I am sorry if I prayed wrong! Teach me to pray correctly!!! Full of trust in Your omniscience and love!


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