betray Him – Praying Pint

1.h. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

1 Chronicles 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them. And Joab said, Jehovah make his people a hundred times as many as they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? why doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of guilt unto Israel? Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them; for the king’s word was abominable to Joab. And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

Job 1:6-12 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

Zechariah 3:1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

Matthew 4:3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

John 13:2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,

Acts 5:3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

James 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Satan is very real. Satan temps us and is able to see weaknesses within us. Satan is able to temp our lust for sex, want of and reliance in wealth and intelligence, and exploitation of our anger, pride, honor, and need for recognition, and a host of other self-seeking, self-centered fleshly and earthly desires. Do we think we are immune to these attacks? Do we even know when we are being attacked? Is it possible that we give in so easily to our sinful nature that we don’t even need to be tempted?

If God’s word is not in our heart, mind, and soul there will be a good chance that we will yield to our sinful natures’ desires rather than needing to be tempted by Satan. If God’s word is in our heart, mind, and soul then we need to be mindful of Satan’s temptations. Satan’s attacks and temptations are to get us to yield to our sinful nature. The only way we will know these attacks, is by knowing God’s word and testing our thoughts, actions, and words against it. We need to seek to be filled with the wisdom and understanding of God’s word through time in it and yielding to the indwelling and filling and leading of the Holy Spirit.

God’s word within our heart, mind, and soul will strengthen us to be courageous, empower us to be victorious, and give us hope and faith to rely on, cling too, and trust in Jesus Christ. Do not yield. Do not give in. Stay in His word and learn what is sinful nature and what is tempting to it. Combat it with the word of God and an intentional choice to live humbly serving, honoring, following, trusting, and obeying Jesus Christ.

The Betrayer

“ and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.”

John 6:70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

John 13:18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’

John 17:12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Matthew 10:1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

1 John 3:8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Betraying Christ is nothing any of us want to do. It would be the farthest thing from our mind. It is not something we give much thought. Yet I still wonder about us betraying service to Him. Do we honor Him with our life Do we commit to this with all our heart, mind and soul? Are our days filled with this thought of serving Him? Do we follow and obey Him? Are we seeking to hear Him speak into our lives through His word each day? Are our heart and mind open to hear His leading? Are we betraying Him by not giving Him our all everyday? Obviously there is room for us to grow in our service to Him. We need a heart deep desired commitment infused into our mind and soul. Losing sight of the thing of this world and keeping focus on Him and the world to come.

Bread of Life

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,”

John 6:60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”

Matthew 11:6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Hebrews 5:11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing

2 Peter 3:16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

Jesus had just told them that He was the bread of life and to eat of this would give them life. For this many walked away. I wonder if we are like this when we choose to stay away from His word. If God’s word is not permeating our life what is feeding our spiritual soul? Apart from His word, nothing. We will waste away, drift away, and lack that which gives us joy, hope, faith, love, kindness, strength, power, grace and mercy. These are seeds that need spiritual watering from His word. If we don’t see His word essential for living, what does that say about our belief. His word will continue to grow us. Fruit of the spirit will be produced and we will be a light shining for Him to use for His glory and honor.