Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the Daily Challenges. Yesterday we read the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan to sin, but remaining perfect.

I asked yesterday if you noticed what Jesus did to resist temptation and sin. Satan offered him wealth, power and freedom, and Jesus responded distinctly to each one. But there was a common thread.

He used scripture each time. For Jesus, this was the Old Testament. In response to an offer of bread, even though he was hungry, Jesus replied, “Man does not live by bread alone”. There is more to life than what we see and know.   How many of us made decision solely based on bread…money? We have given in to temptation.

Offered power, Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’ Finally, offered freedom, Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Each time, he didn’t look for strength in himself, but in God’s word.

Is that enough? Is our problem just that we don’t read and obey our Bibles. Yes, but don’t be discouraged. Jesus is the only human who managed to do this completely and perfectly.

He trusted God wholly. When he said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” And he always saw the spiritual, what God was up to and what Satan was up to, even when he had real physical needs to distract him.

Each time, Satan offered Jesus a good thing to be abused. Wealth, freedom and power are all good things God created, but they can be abused. That was Satan’s plan – get Jesus to abuse them like all other humans have.

We live in time of abuse, the kingdom isn’t yet here in its entirety.

Question: What good things have you seen being abused by humanity? By you?

Meeting with a Group?  Your discussion questions are in this week’s Group Study Guide