The Hit Temptation

And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” Acts 8:18-19

Simon, not Peter, saw something he wanted and he offered up some loot to get it. The Devil showed Jesus something any of us would want - all the kingdoms of the Earth - and our Lord resisted the temptation. In our social media age we have something called the hit temptation, that is the more hits one gets on a social media page the more money, popularity, etc. one has in this life.

Imagine just for demonstration purposes that I get paid for my blog posts, and there are many bloggers who have this going, but it isn't enough because money has that effect on us. One temptation that could increase my hits for a time would be to tell of my experience with meeting Jesus out in the desert. You will quickly recognize what our Lord said in His Olivet Discourse about someone saying that very thing (Matt 24:26 if you need a refresher). By coming up with a good story, I could certainly increase the attention paid to my writing for a time. That time being until someone goes out there and says, "No, He ain't!" That part of Matthew would have saved them the trip, but the temptation goes on.

Call it the hit temptation or the 'going viral' temptation or whatever, the lust to have lots of attention, and gain a pile of loot from it, are prevalent in our social media culture. Everything that our Lord saw and resisted in His temptations is laid out in ways without number for us to look at on the Internet. And among all of that, in order to get noticed there will be some who fall to the temptation to fake a story. The one about Messiah in the desert is coming around again; let us not run out there, we know better.

Grace to you in Christ Jesus!

Bucky