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A Balanced Diet for Believers - Tempting God

by Jerry Ousley  
9/05/2009 / Christian Living

I think I've told about this incident before but to illustrate today's topic I'd like to share it with you again. I remember when I was just a teenage boy riding home with my parents one evening. I was sitting in the backseat and meditating on God. It hadn't been long since I had committed my life to the Lord and I was thinking about the passage of scripture where Jesus had told His disciples that if they commanded a mountain to be picked up and cast in the sea in the Name of Jesus that it would be done. I believed in God. I felt I was a strong Christian even for a teenage boy. So I decided to put God to the test.

As we sped down the highway I looked over to my left and there was a rather large hill. So I prayed under my breath, "God, I believe you. I believe your word. So I'm commanding that the hill be picked up and thrown into the sea, in the Name of Jesus." I sat there fully expecting to see that hill rise up in the air and go flying toward the ocean. But nothing happened. Again in silent prayer I said, "God I fully believe in you; so why haven't you honored my request?" Feeling very disappointed in God I heard a still small voice coming from deep within me answer, "Son, you don't know who lives on that hill."

Somewhat surprised at the answer I got it was then I noticed lights near the top of the hill. A family lived up there. Had God honored my request they would have probably been killed or at least lost everything they had all because of my stupid, selfish request. Why should I have to prove God anyway? Why couldn't I just take him at his word and know that if someday I got into a situation that required a hill or a mountain to be moved that he would do it? In essence I was tempting God. I learned a lesson that day about faith and praying in the Name of Jesus. I found out that it wasn't the words spoken or the demonstration of power but simply believing God for what he spoke and praying for things that Jesus would have prayed for not some lavish display of power that wouldn't benefit anyone but me.

The second temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4 took place when the devil took Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem. Looking down from that very tall structure the devil told Jesus, "If you are the Son of God then just take a leap from here. Didn't God say that he would protect you and send his angels to guard you in as much as he wouldn't even let you bruise your foot against a stone?" The devil saw that Jesus was going to use the word so now he was going to play the game and use the word too. He quoted a scripture from the Psalms that spoke of divine protection of the coming Messiah.

Jesus responded with, "It is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT TEMPT THE LORD YOUR GOD." Jesus knew that this would only be a display of power. For certain it would have gotten his ministry off to a tremendous start. But Jesus knew that God would protect him if the need arose. To purposefully place one's self in the path of harm to prove the power of God was just a plain old case of tempting God. It was completely unnecessary.

Yet today people try to tempt God. We do it in a large variety of ways. Sometimes it is in large public displays that could only make the individual look honored and favored by God. Sometimes it is in the plain and simple. We need to learn that we can trust God without the miraculous in our lives. He is a God of miracles. I believe he works miracles for us everyday most of which go unrecognized. How often has he protected us and we didn't even know it?

The second part of a balanced spiritual diet is trusting God despite what comes our way without the expectation of special favor. We don't deserve anything at all from God. If we got what we deserved we'd all be dead right now. We don't minimize the miraculous but we do need to begin trusting God whether we see a mighty display of power or simply live life day to day in the less obvious of miracles. Trusting God and not requiring some powerful act to make us believe him is a true trait of our strong Christian faith. It is the second requirement of a balanced diet for believers.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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