Daily Journey Through the Great Fast With the Early Churchনমুনা

Any new lifestyle change is always hardest on the first day and a few days into the change, but it takes two weeks to form a habit and thankfully we have reached two weeks today. At times we have been tempted during the plan to hold off and read later, only to find we are beyond tired and ultimately tempted to just skip one day. Much like us when we started on a spiritual high and we committed ourselves to reading God’s word daily, Jesus also starts His good work, His mission, with a spiritual high – His baptism.

Right after He started, He goes into the wilderness and...is tempted. Does that sound familiar? A few days into a good spiritual work, service, habit, we found ourselves tempted to skip, stop, and to succumb to the temptations, but He lays the roadmap for our victory by His victory in those temptations. The core of the three temptations of the devil all dealt with worshipping anyone or anything other than God, to put on a pedestal something or someone “more important” than God or the time we ought to commit to God - maybe we even find ourselves committing the time, the “first fruits”, the first minutes when we wake up that we have set aside for God, to another god...ourselves. We hit the snooze button and just like that, the temptation to replace the time I have for God with my god is long gone and the deed done.

The solution to temptation is to put God above all things, hold on to Him and to have a plan beforehand to achieve this; equip ourselves with Scripture, to flee the devil when we are tempted, do not try to rationalize the temptations and thoughts and as important, to fast and pray. The devil will not stop and as a matter of fact, he needs no rest because he is a spiritual creation not in need of sleep, so he will not stop tempting us until our last breath, whether we are alone at home or praying in the Divine Liturgy. As His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, the 117th Patriarch of Alexandria, of blessed memory said once, “You cannot stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can stop it from making a nest there.” We cannot stop the thoughts from the devil, but we can prevent the thoughts from taking root in our minds. Hold on to Jesus’ victory and He will support you in times of temptation, for the battle is not ours but His to fight (2 Chronicles 20:15).

“Not only Christ was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, but also all sons of God who have the Spirit in them. Because they don’t accept to stay at rest, but the Holy Spirit moves them to achieve great deeds. Then they go out into the wilderness to fight against the devil and resist all deeds of oppression inspired by him. So, all godly persons are getting out into the wilderness to be tempted like that, as they have neither worldly nor bodily desires”. [St. John Chrysostom, the 4th century Archbishop of Constantinople and a “doctor of the Church”]

“Whenever there are excessive attacks from the tempter, we have to fast. Because fasting enables the body to carry on the Christian duty of fighting against the lusts of the world, as well as it inspires the soul to overcome temptation with humility”. [St. Augustine of Hippo, 4th century theologian]