You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

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I remember it like it was yesterday. It was 1976 and my first wife Ellen was wanting to stop taking insulin because she believed that God had healed her. We were new Christians and did not know what to do so we flipped open the bible and came to this verse in Acts 5:

"How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord?"

Now I would not recommend getting guidance from God in that manner but the message rang true to us and Ellen continued to take insulin injections for her diabetes.

In this passage Jesus speaks to the very issue that Ellen and I were dealing with - do we act on the words of scripture from an attitude of faith or presumption. Do we take the general words of holy writ and presume to know what God's will is for our lives? Jesus speaks to us from these words and tells us to not presume to know God's will in these matters. He says that, when we do, we foolishly put God to a test. A test that God will not respond to.

Lord help me to walk by an attitude of trusting faith, and not presumption, today.