Follow a False God or Jesus

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God …”

…

  10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
    and him only shall you serve.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. (Matthew 4:1-3, 10-11)

Some of the hardest tests for a refugee family come late—when they’ve been in their new country for years. That is the point where, if all goes well, they begin to accumulate enough hard-earned money to do something other than survive—to move into a little house instead of a slum apartment. To sponsor another member of the family to live in the United States. To send their children to Lutheran school. 

But the same God-given gift that can be used for good purposes can also be used for evil. Some people become gamblers, throwing away the money that might have been used for good. It is easy for them to move into addictions that hurt the whole family and take away even the daily bread they need to survive.

Others become so focused on money that they make it the number one thing in their lives—earning it, hoarding it, showing it off. Money becomes an idol. And if their children suffer because of the long hours they work? If they lose their faith in God because they have a new god, which is money? Well, these things happen.

Jesus faced temptation in the wilderness, but He didn’t give in to the distractions and lies that sought to turn Him away from God’s true provision. Just as Jesus rejected the temptation to serve a false god and instead remained focused on His Father’s will, we are called to stay focused on the true God, who provides for us, even in our moments of struggle.

God doesn’t want evil things to happen, either to us or to our newest neighbors in our country. This is why he encourages us to love them enough, to befriend them, to establish relationships with them, to tell them about the Lord Jesus. They need a real God who cares about them and provides for their needs. They need a God who loves them so much that he gave up his own life and died to give them the only life that is real and satisfying. They need Jesus, who rose from the dead—and who has promised to give that real, everlasting life to anyone who trusts in him—free of charge.

Dear Lord, have mercy on me and on the new Americans around me, especially when we’re tempted to trust in false gods. Help us to trust you instead. Amen.

by Dr. Kari Vo.