{"id":7033,"date":"2021-03-24T10:24:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T00:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7033"},"modified":"2021-03-24T10:24:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T00:24:11","slug":"the-devil-made-me-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-devil-made-me-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The Devil Made Me Do It"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Devil Made Me Do It<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Samuel Fanous<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 4:1-11<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we start losing motivation to sustain our spiritual goals, an important reminder is the story of Christ\u2019s temptation from the devil after He had fasted 40 days and nights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ was baptised in the Jordan immediately before this\nencounter. A voice came from heaven and said, \u201cThis is My beloved Son, in whom\nI am well pleased\u201d (Matthew 3:17). This was the glory that proceeded this\npassage. After the glory, immediately, \u201cJesus was led up by the Spirit into the\nwilderness to be tempted by the devil\u201d (Matthew 4:1). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any spiritual life, progress is typically accompanied by temptation and difficulties. The devil looks upon our progress and ensures we are stopped us in our tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All too commonly with those on the cusp of their spiritual life, as they are about to make a commitment to Christ, things begin to fall apart. Everything goes wrong. How can someone be making a lifelong commitment before Christ and then see everything around them falling apart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God allows this to happen for our benefit if we overcome. If we don\u2019t make it through, then we are not worthy of the prize. If we do get through, then it demonstrates our zeal for the prize and this is how we achieve it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can expect life to become harder if we are trying our hardest spiritually during lent. The typical temptations faced by humanity are the same in which the devil tempted Christ with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After fasting for 40 days, we can expect Christ to be\nhungry. The devil comes to Him, tempting Him with food. He says, \u201cIf You are\nthe Son of God, command that these stones become bread.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Lent, that can mean breaking our fast. It can mean\nconcluding that fasting is too hard with so many commitments. We can also break\nthe fast in other ways despite maintaining the right food. We can live life to\nsatisfy the pleasures of the body. We can live life for the lust of the flesh.\nTemptation during this time comes from things that I thought were long dead are\nrevived in me when I try to engage in my spiritual life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we give in to these pleasures, our spiritual progress is halted.\nNow is the time to increase our fasting, our abstinence. Fasting is not abstinence\nfrom food only, but from the life of the flesh and the pleasures of the flesh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now is the time to reduce the amount of television I watch,\nto reduce my time spent on Netflix, on social media. We can unwind my watching\ntelevision, or we can unwind by spending quiet time with the Lord. I can give\nwhat little free time I have on something mindless, or I can attempt to make\nuse of it spiritually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all have thousands of excuses to demand me-time. This can\ndevelop into a pattern over years and becomes difficult to break. During Lent,\nwe can devote me-time to time with God. Me-time can be prayer time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second temptation involves power. The devil takes Christ\nupon a very high mountain and says, \u201cIf You are the Son of God, throw Yourself\ndown. For it is written: \u2018He shall give His angels charge over you,\u2019 and, \u2018In\ntheir hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.\u2019 \u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can have it all, if you just sell your soul to the\ndevil. The modern day translation would be, you can have it all, if you sacrifice\nyour Sundays, or you can have it all, if you work hard enough, sacrificing your\ntime in prayer. Forgot all your spiritual goals, because you cannot do both.\nYou cannot achieve everything spiritually while achieving the status you want\non earth. You can have all the money you want, if you lie and cheat and steal\nyour way there. You have to sell your soul to the world to achieve what you\nwant. This is a never-ending temptation and so, the question we must ask ourselves\nis, \u201cWhat am I giving up to achieve the things I want in this life?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we devout our entire lives to anything of this world, what will we have to show for it in the end times? Jesus asks a similar question when He tells His disciples of the second coming; \u201cFor what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels<\/em>\u201d (Mark 8:36-37). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us, we need to be careful not go along with the flow of\nlife. Lent is a good time to take note of my goals in life? Good family, good\nhouse, good status? Sometimes we don\u2019t even know our goals. Think of a normal\nday in the last week, how much of your mental and physical time were spent on\nthings of the world? Maybe 10-12 hours. Think on that same day, did I spend\nthinking about God, the Bible, my spiritual life? Maybe 10-12 minutes if we\u2019re\nlucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this is the truth, then this is our answer. If we spend\nall day in the world, and one minute is given to God throughout the day, you know\nwhere your goals lie. If you are forced to spend most of your time at work, contemplate\non Him while you are there. Find a church in your lunch break, pray there. If you\nspend your time looking after young children, find God while your feeding,\nbathing, playing. Whatever you\u2019re doing, take God with you. Your goal will still\nbe God and spiritual things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final temptation is the one where I do not need God. I don\u2019t need God to be a good person, I don\u2019t need to go to church for that. If I convince myself that I am a good person, that is all I need. If I throw myself down from a pinnacle then I will be saved by my good deeds. This is the hardest thing to breakthrough \u2013 the awareness of my own sinfulness. The one that confesses of murder has a much greater chance of going to heaven then the one that confesses that they are a good person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of insight into ourselves is the biggest problem,\nand this is nothing short of pride. The woman caught in adultery was not\ncondemned by Christ, but the Pharisees who never did anything wrong were\ncondemned; they were called snakes and brood of vipers! They did not understand\nthemselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think to yourself- have you ever shed tears of repentance?\nHave you ever felt remorse for your sins? Have you ever felt joy at the\nundeserved grace on the Cross? If this does not mean anything, then it makes\nthe heart further from Christ than the worst of all sinners. Only by\ncontrasting myself with the glory of God will I know who I am. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the presence of God, you will know who you are. Only in\nthe presence of God that we can describe ourselves as St Paul does as, \u201cChrist\nJesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief\u201d (1 Timothy\n1:15), but also, \u201cand if children, then heirs\u2014heirs of God and joint heirs with\nChrist, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together\u201d (Romans\n8:17). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us remain steadfast and work harder that in all\ntribulation we are glorified in Christ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Devil Made Me Do It Adapted from a sermon by Fr Samuel Fanous Matthew 4:1-11 As we start losing motivation to sustain our spiritual goals, an important reminder is the story of Christ\u2019s temptation from the devil after He had fasted 40 days and nights. Christ was baptised in the Jordan immediately before this … Continue reading “The Devil Made Me Do It”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7035,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7033\/revisions\/7035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}