A New Devotion - The Great Distractor

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"

Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

The Great Distractor

Frankly, I think we give the devil way too much power. I mean, often we seem to assume that he’s just slightly under God himself in the authority department and that we should be in constant fear of what he might force us to do. It’s as though we’re living in a horror movie, one in which Satan can possess folks like us and so control their will, that they do horrible things to themselves and to others. In fact, I think this is often the devil we hear described by some very sincere and dedicated believers, and so naturally, we’re scared of what he might do to us and our children.

But that’s certainly not the devil we find in scripture. Instead of being this unstoppable force of evil, he’s presented as a pathetic liar, an entity that tries to convince us that he’s bigger and badder than he actually is. For example, as we see in the encounter between Jesus and the devil there in the wilderness, all he can actually do is to get us to blink as we’re trying to follow the will of God. You see, he’s the little guy on our shoulder who whispers in our ear, telling us to question what we know to be true and to doubt the love of God and those who love us. In other words, he tries to distract us. Now, that’s really the extent of his power; therefore, we can do what Jesus did when he resisted the lies and stayed on course. You see, we can stand firm in our faith, and with the help of God and our brothers and sisters, we can say “no” to the great distractor.