50 Days of Prayer for Fellowship CRC

Gen. 3:1 – “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say … ?“

This question is the first recorded temptation in the Bible, and it gets to the heart of the believer’s relationship with God.  The purpose of the question is to try and locate a crack in that relationship, and to place a wedge in that crack. As with any wedge, it will be hammered, to open that crack up until the relationship is split wide open.

Jesus’s identity was affirmed at his baptism. “A voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’” Immediately after that, he was in the desert, to be tested by the devil. The devil tried to attack him right at this point of relationship. Just as in the first temptation, we hear the voice of the ancient serpent hissing, “Did God really say that? Did God really say you are his Son? Maybe you heard wrong. Maybe it was thunder. So if you are the Son of God, then God could not possibly want you to be weak with self-imposed hunger.” “If you are the Son of God, God would not want you harmed in any way, so throw yourself down, test and see if the words of Psalm 91 were really written for your personal protection.” And finally, “if you are the Son of God, what harm could it do to worship me?”

The tempter will try and attack your identity as a believer.  God has shown his love to us and brought us into relationship with him as his beloved children. But let’s admit it, we all hear God inadequately, and we are all subject to doubts later on.  These represent cracks which the tempter will use to insert a wedge. Then he will hammer away at that wedge, thinking he can sever the relationship that we have with God.

We need to address those cracks before the wedge can be inserted or deepened. We do this by hearing the voice of God in prayerful reading of the Bible.  And if you are not hearing God’s voice as you pray and read, then add in silence and solitude in a place where other voices are not so loud.  

Remember, Jesus went through this for us, because he knows we will be tempted in this way. Read Hebrews 2:14-18. Our faithful high priest, who understands us because he endured what we go through and more, is able to help us who are being tempted.

So we pray:
Thank you Father God, my Creator and Re-creator. You have made me your child, and I am yours. You really did say that! Seal up those beautiful words in my life, Lord, that my relationship with you may be secure and I may love and serve you with my whole heart. Thank you Jesus for giving yourself to trials, temptation and testing, so that you would be a faithful high priest for your people. Amen.