God’s Secret

Romans 6:11-23

11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reflection of Bee:

The amazing grace of God had saved us from the guilt of sins when we accepted His salvation. After being saved, we need to know that Satan has no more power over us, unless we allow him to control us (v14). "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." —1 John 4:4

The wages of sin is death (v23). This death not only refers to the physical one but also the spiritual death and death to our soul. When we continue to sin our conscience may becomes numb to guilt and therefore will not repent.

We need to learn to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit prompting in our heart so that we will not fall into the trap of the devil.


Dear Lord,
Thank You for the fact that sin has not power over me. Therefore, I can have the choice to be Your 'slave' and do what is right in Your sight. Yes, though there may be struggles in obeying You, yet You always win. Let me be sensitive to Your Spirit and know Your will for me in my life.
I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Trampling Temptation

Matthew 4:1-11

The Temptation of Jesus
1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'[a]"

5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'[b]"

7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'[c]"

8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."

10Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'[d]"

11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Reflection of Bee:

The devil tempted Adam & Eve (Genesis 3), and then Jesus, in 3 different ways: body (v1-4), soul (v5-7), and spirit (v8-10). Adam and Eve fell into the temptations of the devil, but Jesus overcame all the temptations.

Today, the devil still uses the same tricks to temp us. We need to learn from Jesus how to overcome these temptations.

1. Temptation of our physical needs:
Jesus told the devil that we need to live by God's word (Bible) and He quoted the scriptures to overcome Satan. That means, we need to know God's truth to win the battle.

2. Temptation of our emotional needs:
Jesus told the devil that we should not test God into giving Him what He wants. We must not test God in order to feed our emotional needs, such as telling God that if He is God He will bring us a spouse, etc.

3. Temptation of our spiritual needs:
Jesus told the devil that we should only worship God and no one else. We are not to fall into the trap of worshiping material things and recognize that God is the only one deserve our worship.

Dear Lord,
Thank You for the reminder tonight that I can conquer the temptations of the devil by following Your example. You know all my needs and You will be the One to supply them in Your time.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.