Not Today Satan

Jesus is by far one of the funniest people in the Bible to me. Not only did He have the greatest clapbacks of all time, I believe He coined this phrase, Not Today Satan, way before our existence.

Let’s look back at the temptation of Christ.  Satan has some nerve coming up to THE Christ and tempting Him. But I am really grateful of this example. From it, we learn that we can defeat the temptations of the deceiver just like Jesus.

Matthew 4 tells the story of the Temptation of Jesus. It begins with a fast that lasted 40 days and 40 nights. (And some of us were barely holding on to the 21 day Daniel fast). When Jesus becomes hungry, cue the arrival of Satan.

Does this reflect kinda your life? It definitely reflects mine. I’ve had a spiritual encounter with God. I am on a spiritual high. Things in life are looking upward. The quiet time has been consistent. The church attendance is more than Easter, Mother’s Day and Christmas. Tithes are on time. Blessings are overflowing. Joy is abundant. Peace is prevalent.

Then comes the enemy.

Not today Satan? The temptation is looking really good. And shortly after giving in, I have a spiritual crash. Maybe I wasn’t as strong as I thought. Maybe I wasn’t as close to God as I thought. There I am, alone in my defeat screaming, “YES TODAY SATAN!”

How will I ever be able to overcome this battle that seems impossible??

Well, Christ showed us the way.

From this passage, I learned a few things that have and will help against temptation.

We have to know the Word of God

In the full armor of God, the Bible is the only offensive weapon that we have. Jesus uses the Word to fight the devil. Not only does He use the Word, He uses an applicable Word. We can’t fight sexual sin with John 3:16. We can’t fight gluttony with Genesis 1:1. Whatever it is that we are dealing with, there is a verse or passage that we can hide in our hearts so that we might not sin against God.

Satan knows the Word of God

In verse 6 of Matthew 4, Satan attempts to use the Word as a tool in his deception. I have heard the story a few times of the person who detects counterfeit money. There are so many ways and tricks that people have accumulated throughout the years to print fake money. Someone asked him how it was possible to memorize every trick on fake money. He replied that he never needed to study the fake money. By truly knowing the details of real currency, he could detect fake money every time. We have to be like this with God’s Word. We have to know it well. We have to study it. We have to meditate on it. And when the enemy comes and attempts to use it, we can detect the manipulation and deception.

We know the enemy is coming at us. We know how to defeat Him. Let’s use the Sword and win the fight.

Oh no! Not today Satan!

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