Matthew 4.1-11 There are times when God tests us. Listen to audio of sermon here Notice how Jesus in Matthew 4 is ‘Led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil’. It is the Devil who does the tempting, but it is the Spirit who leads Jesus into the place where he will be tempted. And there is a reason that God tests us. It is not to make us fall or fail, but rather to strip us of our false idols, the things we put in his place, to turn us back to him, to teach us so that we learn to rely on him – and discover more of his immense love for us, to fill us with his love, to prepare us for heaven and to make us radiant. We are tested not because God wants to crush us, but because we are his beloved children, and he wants us to grow. As the writer to the Hebrew’s says, “Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?” Hebrews 12:7 Even Jesus, we are told, ‘learnt obedience through
about God, life and the things that really matter