Prepare for Easter

Monday, March 2, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

And the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God. . . .” Luke 4:3 NKJV

Do you think Satan did not know who Jesus was? “If” didn’t mean that he didn’t know. “If” was a challenge. “If you are who you say you are, prove it! Do some miracle – even a small one like turning a stone into bread. After all, you are hungry, and you deserve to eat. Even better, make God do some miracle like save you when you throw yourself off of a building.”

I think Jesus is just incredible! (Of course!) He had been in the wilderness for 40 days without food and water, so we’d expect him to be weak! We forget something. He had been communing with his Father all that time, drawing strength from him. Remember later when he told his disciples, “I have food that you don’t know about.” Well, this was one of those times. His food was a spiritual sustenance that not only kept him from being weak at the end of the 40 days, but it made him strong enough to meet his formidable foe who never quit trying to defeat him.

We may not be challenged as he was, but we are challenged. Haven’t there been times when someone said, “IF you are a Christian, why aren’t you working at My Father’s Table?” “If you are a Christian, why aren’t you standing on the street corner telling people about the Lord?” “If you are a Christian. . . .”

Jesus knew who he was and what his business was! He did not waste his time arguing with Satan, the liar and father of liars. We must follow his lead. When we spend time with God, he’ll tell us who we are and what he wants us to do. Then we won’t be tempted to try to do the work he’s called someone else to do.

Father, Help us to hear you call us to our own work. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator