“Keep your mind clear, and be alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion as he looks for someone to devour”. I Peter 5:8 GW
The final test of Jesus’ commitment to His Father’s will took place on Calvary.
“Come down from the cross!” (Matt. 27:40) was a challenge uttered by the chief priests, soldiers and people; but behind it was Satan himself. Having failed to entice Jesus through His body, ego and mind, Satan tried to break His will by means of His emotions.
The emotional strain of the cross was staggering. The main ingredient was abandonment.
The abandonment of Jesus was complete----people, disciples and even though for a brief time, His Father. At that point, when His emotions were at their strained peak, Satan whispered to Him, “Everyone’s against you; what’s the use? You have taken enough; end all this business by a quick stroke of power and come down from that cross of pain. Why should you suffer anymore?”
That was the most deceitful of all Satan’s tactics, for then he was in the role of sympathizer, reliever and deliverer. How often Satan’s temptations come in the guise of deliverance!
How quickly he can break our will by leading us to self-pity. But Jesus saw through the trickery; He realized He could not spare Himself and still save others. He refused to abandon His commitment; He would not renege on His Father’s will and so He triumphed! Victory!
We must realize that we are always vulnerable emotionally to Satan.
Emotions will fluctuate; but if our commitment to God is firm and determined, they will stay in balance.
“Lord, help us not to be distracted by our fluctuating emotions.”
“Of course we are human, but we don’t fight like humans. The weapons we use in our fight are not made by humans. Rather, they are powerful weapons from God. With them we destroy people’s defenses, that is, their arguments and all their intellectual arrogance that oppose the knowledge of God. We take every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ”. II Cor. 10:3-5 GW
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