The Lenten Adventure Participant Forum

Jesus’ temptation…. How relevant this is to me! Jesus was led into the wilderness and did not eat for 40 days. He had a very real need for food, his body craved it and I suppose his mind was tempted, delirious with hunger with the signals from his body. Then the devil tempts him by telling him to make food, bread, knowing that Jesus easily could do so having the full power of God.

The lesson for me in this is that the devil knows what I need, what I crave, what I feel with my body and mind that I cannot live without. He then comes in to tempt me to do things that are not godly to get those things. How wicked he is? It isn’t that in Jesus’ case the desire for food was wrong, it is a real need. Yet, to try to make bread for himself, Jesus would have been sinning. In the same way, if I try to meet my own needs, no matter how heartfelt, could that be sin also? That depends on how I go about fulfilling that need. Uggggh!

Jesus was filled with the Spirit when he went into the desert. The spirit was with him as the days passed by and Jesus suffered more and more without food. The Spirit no doubt ministered to him. But the thing that is really interesting is that it is implied that the Holy Spirit was with him as the devil tempted him. This is a new idea for me. Often when I have succumbed to temptation, I have thought that it was due to me being on my own, letting my flesh take over in my alone state. To think that every time I have sinned, the Holy Spirit has been there, within me, gives me pause. If I sin, I believe there is scripture that says the Spirit leaves for He cannot indwell a person involved in sin but if I do not, He is strong, there with me, just as He was with Jesus. The devil knows that if I forget about the Spirit, believe He is not with me, he has a better chance at claiming victory. If he, the devil, can drown out the understanding, the truth that the Spirit is with me, I feel alone and helpless and in this way can succumb to the flesh. The strength that comes from knowing the Spirit is with me should enable me to overcome temptation. If I cannot, does that mean that I am in willful rebellion or does it mean that my faith is too weak?

Scripture is clear, we are not tempted beyond what we are able to bear. God does not set us up to fail. He allows tempting and trials knowing that we are capable of bearing up under them and resisting. I am the weakest link in these situations. God knows that I can do it, in His strength. Perhaps I am not married because God knows that I am not ready for that position yet. I have thought that recently and I can see some of the things that have been pointed out to me about myself are true. I don’t like it but I know that God is revealing this to me so that I can accept it and let Him work in me to change me so that I will be prepared to be a good wife to someone. I am so thankful for that.

And here is the crux of the matter. Jesus resisted temptation to meet his own needs in his own power and strength by saying “It is written that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God.” How often have I felt a deep need, something not inherently wrong, and sought to fulfill it myself. Most of this occurred before I was saved and is the way that most of the world lives but it never turned out well for me. Now that I am saved, I still have needs, hungers, desires that are not wrong, that spring from needs all humans have. I must remember that it is the Word of God, Jesus, the Bible, the Spirit that I really need, not the bread, not the other things. I must fill myself with the things Jesus knew would fulfill…. Himself.