August 18, 2025 -- Matthew 4:1-4 -- Does God really see me?

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

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, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:1-4 ESV
 
In a very real way, when Jesus answered the tempter’s first temptation, “If (or better since) you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” He was making a double reference. Jesus’ beautiful response was a quotation “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” Deuteronomy 8:3. However, it applied equally well to what the Father had just said to Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus was able to withstand every temptation and stand with His Father, passing every test, because He knew in His soul that He is truly loved by the Father.
 
Think of how many trials and struggles you succumb to because you wonder, in the chaotic turmoil of your heart, when no one is looking, you wonder, “God, do You see me? Can You love me?” Those are the very questions the tempter whispers. In view of the magnificent work of Jesus, Who withstood all the devil’s lies and passed every one of the Father’s tests for faithfulness, we can be fully assured that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus has achieved for us a righteousness that can withstand the all the devil’s lies.
 
Father in heaven, sometimes the whispers of the enemy seem louder than the demonstration of Your great love given so perfectly in Jesus Christ. By Your Spirit, cause the word to be the megaphone that drowns out the enemy’s lies. Answer our soul’s questions. You are EL RAAH^, the God Who Sees Me; You so loved the world that You sent Jesus. Seal Your answers to our longing souls. Amen.
( Genesis 16:13 )
 
https://youtu.be/FX6u6ULIdmk?si=mvXOc0lrNNQVJbcN Here Is Love
 

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