One of the Devil's Hangouts

727 Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Sa 24:24 Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel. I don't mean to give Araunah a bad rap here, but he reminds me of the devil. Look where he is hanging out! At the threshing floor! This is one of the devils' favorite places to hang out, in order to put our faith to the test by sifting. Remember Peter in Luke 22:31? “And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.” It was the devil's hope that he could separate Peter from the love of Christ, by making him think that Jesus couldn't possibly forgive him for his sin. Remember Job? Same kind of deal, the devil put Job through all sorts of trials hoping to shipwreck his faith and separate him from the love of God. When Jesus went out to the wilderness, He too was sifted by the prince of this world with the three temptations of lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. In all three, he sought to get Jesus to take the easy way out! “No need to be hungry Jesus, turn these stones into bread.” “Bow down to me now and I will give you all the kingdoms of the world!” “Make a spectacular show of Yourself by safely jumping off the top of the temple.” There's no need for you to suffer and die on the cross, you can have it all now!” And he wasn't done yet, he came at Jesus again in the Garden of Gethsemane tempting him to find an easier way out. Araunah offers the threshing floor to David at no price, an easy way out, but David says, “I will not offer up anything that costs me nothing.” And the Son of God said the same thing for our sake as well. You see there are no shortcuts. The wages of sin is death, and someone had to pay the price, and because Jesus didn't take any shortcuts, you and I have been handed the gift of eternal life. What kind of love is this? How can you say no to this Man who out of sheer love for you, said no to the shortcuts and paid the full price of your sins? Are you being sifted? Tempted to ditch the faith? Learn from Job and Peter and hang in there knowing that nothing is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8: 39