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And Satan said to Jesus, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

Matthew 4:9–10, LSB

What is the price for your soul? We may not have as direct of a conversation with Satan, but how easily does he distract us from worshiping and serving God? Satan is very subtle in how he works. The comedian's line from long ago, “The devil made me do it!” rings with some truth, though the devil may not force us to do anything. The unimposing ways he works cause us to easily lose sight of God and drive us in patterns and ways we may not have thought about prior. The constant distraction that takes our eyes off worshiping and places our focus solely on ourselves filling our heads with selfish thoughts and pulling us away from our service to our neighbor. Thoughts that divide us and create unnecessary battle lines. We like to dig our trenches and cast our grenades onto the other side taking potshots as others are left exposed. The unnecessary harm we bring to ourselves and others. We know that our Lord was given by God as a sacrifice for our sins, but those who sacrificed Him upon that instrument of torture justified their actions because they were “protecting the faith.” God desires our full worship and our greatest devotion not to punish or to diminish our lives, but to fill us with His peace.

Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.