How we Overcome the temptation to Not Fulfill the Lord’s Will
It’s summertime, and as such, we enjoy garden vegetables. In fact, last evening, several family members graced our table to visit with our daughter and son, who had come home for a funeral. While preparing the food, my brother-in-law asked a question that paused my mind, planting it and causing me to ask:
- Why did the Lord Jesus need to face the temptation of Satan in the Garden of Gethsemane? &
- When does Satan not win during his tempting us to sin?
To answer both, we must go to God’s Word.
“But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus,
(The Letter to the Hebrews 2: 9-10 NASB)
because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor,
so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting for Him,
for whom are all things,
and through whom are all things,
in bringing many sons to glory,
to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.”
Let me begin by asking you to pause and listen as Kari Jobe sings the melody “Revelation Song,” a song speaking of the wonder and the power of Jesus’ name. Listen carefully and really hear—JUST WHAT JESUS ACCOMPLISHED ON CALVARY’S CROSS FOR YOU AND ME.
“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty: WHO WAS, WHO IS & WHO IS TO COME!”
During the Lord’s Supper in the upper room, Jesus spoke of the evil one who was to come. Then Jesus walked to the garden to pray. This priestly prayer uttered by the Great High Priest reveals the agony, the pain, the humiliation, the deep sorrow, the anguish, the dread & the separation from God that the Savior was facing. It is there, in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see how deeply Jesus contemplated the suffering that awaited Him.
- The garden represents the spiritual battlefield Jesus was to endure.
- Jesus, in His humanity, speaks of His impending sacrifice, the taking on of our sins.
- Jesus groaned in His obedience to the Father’s will.
“And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives;
(The Gospel of Luke 22: 39-42 NASB)
and the disciples also followed Him.
When He arrived at the place, He said to them,
“Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw,
and He knelt down and began to pray, saying,
“Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me;
yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
Consider the agony the Son of man, the Lord Jesus faced that night as He knelt to pray. Satan, the power of darkness, was there in the garden, tempting the Savior to not fulfill His mission. Bible scholars speak of “this cup” as the cup of God’s wrath, and the wrath of God overwhelmed Jesus so much that it almost killed Him.
“And being in agony He was praying very fervently;
(The Gospel of Luke 22: 44 NASB)
and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”
- The Impending Betrayal.
- The Arrest.
- The Crucifixion.
- The Deep Sorrow.
- The Anguish.
- The Dread—as the Lord Jesus contemplated ALL that awaited Him upon the cross.
- The Pain
- The Humiliation.
- The Separation from God as Jesus Christ took your sins and my sins & ALL HUMANITY’S SINS UPON HIMSELF.
The excruciating weight of what Jesus knew was coming—unimaginable!
& yet,
Jesus willingly drank from that cup as He went to the cross for us!
How do we overcome the devil’s temptation to Not fulfill the Lord’s will within our lives?
- We bow down on our knees & We pray as the Messiah demonstrated.
- We earnestly seek the Lord & We ask Him to take away this temptation we are facing.
- We pray, remembering what the Bible instructs us to do.
- We read God’s Word, preparing ourselves for the devil’s temptation that is sure to come.
“Now these things happened to them as an example,
(The 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 10: 11-16 NASB)
and they were written for our instruction,
upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man;
and God is faithful,
who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,
but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also,
so that you will be able to endure it.
Therefore, my beloved,
flee from idolatry.
I speak as to wise men;
you judge what I say.
Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?
Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?”
Why did the Lord Jesus need to face the temptation of Satan in the Garden of Gethsemane?
In the garden, Jesus faced the greatest temptation of all—so dangerous, so cunning—hidden like a snake in the grass. Satan is that insidious.
So, pause & ask yourself: When does Satan NOT win during his tempting us to sin?
We need only to look at the third chapter in Genesis, in the Garden of Eden, to see how easily mankind is tempted. May we face the fiercest spiritual battles armed with what we have received: the Word of God and prayer. It is there, in these, that Satan is defeated.