1. Satan’s Deceptive Attack
How does Satan work in our lives? From the beginning, God, Satan and angels existed, unseen to our eyes. In the midst of the spiritual battle, we must be aware of the spiritual world. In the scripture, the Pharisees and Herodians are enemies but they come together to try to trap Jesus using Theology and kill him. This is how much Satan hates Christ and those with the gospel. Even now, Satan uses politics and world leaders to destroy Christianity. Even now, there are so many churches that worship without the gospel, giving messages that water down the gospel.
The Pharisees come before Jesus with lip service. In that same way, we are so good at masquerading, and say God is our Lord, but in our hearts, we know. Most of all, God knows. There is nothing we can hide from him. If that is us, we need to allow Christ to be our master. Let’s really search our hearts and see our true spiritual state, because Satan will try to trick us into thinking we’re fine.
Jesus says “Why do you test me?” He is telling them to stop playing games, but do we play games with our faith? Jesus is clear that their hearts are against God. He sees right through them, and sees right through us. Satan works in our lives so that we masquerade and give lip service to God.
2. Give to Caesar What is Caesar’s
The Herodians and Pharisees believed they were struggling because they were colonized by the Roman empire. They thought if they were freed, everything would be okay. However, Jesus says our environment and circumstances are secondary. The Kingdom of God must be our priority, but instead we choose to make our work or our studies our priority. Throughout Mark, we are continuously asked: who is ruling my heart? The world of Christ? The Israelites were staking their lives on not paying taxes, but Jesus tells us to simply do what you have to do while on earth, but don’t stake your life on them.
3. Give to God What is God’s
Jesus reminds us that we are imprinted with God’s image, and belong to God. God specially created only us in his image, and were created to belong to Him. Then, let’s give God what is God’s: ourselves and our lives. We don’t straighten out our lives before coming to God. We come to God as we are, because God knows us. Then, God will accept us and restore our lives. The Romans worshiped Caesar as a God. Who is our object of worship?
Conclusion
Jesus Christ must be the master of everything I own, and all of our circumstances, both good and bad. Offering is not what we give to the church, or the pastor, but to God. When we know who we are and who we belong to and offer ourselves to God, Christ will work in our lives. No matter what, we are God’s children, and we belong to the Kingdom of God as heavenly citizens. Let’s live with that assurance every day.
How do we live as children of God? By letting Christ reign over our hearts, our problems, and our relationships. Face problems like a child of God, turning to him for strength. God has called us not only as his children but as a team. We are not here by coincidence or freewill but God gathers us together as a church to work together as a team.
Throughout the day, take time to pray offering yourself to God, confessing that we are weak and need Him to reign over us. Give God all of your mistakes and failures, ourselves as we are. Give to God what is God’s.
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