Matthew 4:5-7
Jesus loved His heavenly Father and was careful to do only those things which He saw His Father doing and which were contained in His will. During His temptation, the devil took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and dared Him to throw Himself off to prove that He was the Son of God. In the devil’s warped mind, God would have to obey His own word and send angels to prevent Jesus from being injured in such a plunge. Jesus, however, does not see the scripture as something by which we should test God to find out if He would keep His word, but as a blessed promise of the faithfulness of our heavenly Father to all of us.
It’s fairly easy to see this explanation about not putting God to the test. However, in our own lives it isn’t always so easy to see when we might be putting our heavenly Father to the test.
We can drive 50mph on an icy, snow-covered road and expect God to keep us from having an accident.
We can maintain poor diets, not get enough sleep and exercise, and ask God for good health and long life.
We can smoke cigarettes and pray that we won’t get lung cancer or hardening of the arteries.
We can spend minimal time with our spouse and pray that we have a wonderful marriage.
We can pamper our children, fail to correct them and teach them God’s way, and pray that they will grow up to be Christians.
We can leave our Bibles closed on the table and hope that we will get to know God and His word.
We can look at porn on a regular basis and expect that our marriage and our spiritual life will not be affected.
We can use the years God has given us in self-gratifying pursuits and a “go to church on Sunday” religion, and expect God to usher us through the gates of heaven.