Tempting God

Dear brethren,
Today's readings:

2Kings 2,3; Psalm 48, Matthew 4

Matthew 4:7 (KJV)
Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Jesus was alluding to the incident at Massah and Meribah (Ex 17:1-7, Deut 6:16), which names literally mean "testing" and "contention".
Overall, the idea of distrust and disbelief. Trying to prove something that has already been established.
Here in the tempting of Jesus, Satan ripped Scripture out of context (wow! Even the devil can quote Scripture!) to entice Jesus to discredit God. And yes, certainly God takes care of His Own, but that does not mean we can be deliberately careless and reckless in our behavior! What it does mean is that we should not be crippled by fear and become paranoid as if God is non-existent. In fact that will be another form of tempting God.
Other ways that we can temp God is not willing to submit to what He plainly teaches.
And we are not only talking about those outside of Christ but perhaps even more so those who claim to be believers. Many a time, when we try to reason with such individuals, it will come to the point where they will either say "you have your interpretation and I have mine" or "I agree with what you shared with me from the bible but I still prefer my church" and I have even come across people who say "oh you know, the bible is just a guide book suggesting what we may do"
Not taking God at His word is tempting Him!

And even as we further narrow down, even within the brotherhood, among us, what is our attitude towards souls of men, even our own souls? Do we trust God enough to be really sobered to this fact that, lukewarmness is unacceptable to Him? How are we showing His presence in our lives? Or are we just like any other regular guy, except maybe setting aside time on Sunday to worship, and maybe a midweek evening. Any of which can be easily displaced by a call at work or even for play? Are we trying our best to reach out to lost souls, knowing that great responsibility handed to us by Jesus? Have we done our part to reach out to fellow brethren especially in times of need, knowing that our love for brethren shows our love to God and professes our faith to the world? (1Jn 4:12,13; Jhn 13:34,35)
Don't forget that sinning is not just about not committing but also about omitting! (Jam 4:17).

Wherefore let us be wary and not weary! Wary of the fact that tempting God is not as far from us as we might think. And be not weary, lukewarm, even cold and numb, to do His Will.
Fire ourselves up! Sober up! God's promises goes both ways - we can be received up to eternal glory or cast down to eternal damnation. Far be it for us to tempt God, but on the very contrary, put our full trust and faith in Him and align our thoughts and deeds to that belief.