Daily Devotional Details

Date

“Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Luke 22:46

It is important to understand how temptation works. Temptation grows in power as it builds a position in your soul. You see this same pattern in sports.

Think about baseball. The star pitcher is striking everybody out. But then he leaves a hanging curve ball “up in the zone,” and now he has a man on first base—not much to worry about.

Then, on the next batter, one of his fielders makes an error, and now there are two men on. The pitcher throws four straight balls, and suddenly he’s under pressure. The opposing team is building a position!

On the night Jesus was betrayed, Satan was building a position. He was about to unleash his entire arsenal against Jesus and the disciples.

Earlier that evening, Jesus said to Peter, “Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31). “Satan is going to direct a great assault against you. Your heart will be divided. You need to watch and pray.”

But when Jesus returns to the disciples, He finds them asleep. And He says, “Why are you sleeping?” In other words, “Don’t you feel your need to prepare for what’s about to happen?”

When Paul talks about spiritual warfare, he says, “Take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day…” (Eph. 6:13). The evil day! What’s that?

All days are not the same. There will be some days when you will come under particular attack. When will that be? You don’t know, and that is why you need to be ready.

Have you ever experienced an “evil day”? What happened? Were you ready?