Only JesusSample

We encounter evil almost on a regular basis as residents of planet earth. We are tempted to choose what gives us instant gratification, to cut corners, to misuse people and to give in to greed. Looking at Jesus’ life we realise that although He was all God He was all man too and yet He could overcome temptation, face evil in the eye and kick it to the curb. Therefore, we have no excuses to give in to evil and allow it to drag us under, since we have the gift of choice. We can choose to overcome evil or we can choose to succumb to it. In today’s passage,  we look at the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness. Satan corners Jesus who has been fasting and praying while out in the scorching heat of the desert. He is tired and worn out when the tempter comes to him and begins to test him by addressing his physical need of hunger. He asked Jesus to turn stones into bread to which Jesus  Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.” (MSG translation)

The thing about a stream is that it is more intimately connected to its surroundings than any other water body which means that when we choose to get into God’s word we get intimately connected with God Himself.  We cannot expect to have ammunition against the enemy if we don’t have the word of God in our hearts and on our lips. Jesus knew exactly how to combat the enemy because He knew the word of God intimately. 

The second thing that Satan did was to twist the word of God to his advantage. He quoted Psalm 91 and asked Jesus to throw Himself off a high cliff because the word of God promised that He will give His angels charge over him. Jesus’ reply is curt in asking Satan to not test the Lord. Many times it’s tempting to question God when things don’t go as per the plan or when the unexpected happens. While we can wrestle with things that are hard to understand, there comes a time when we must implicitly trust God even when we don’t understand the whys and hows of our life.

The third thing that Satan did was to show Jesus the kingdoms of the world and their glory saying he would give Him everything if He would fall down and worship him. Jesus rebukes Satan and quotes the verse from Deuteronomy saying “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” It matters who and what we worship because that is who or what we serve be it our wealth, our career, our family or our ministry even. Anything that takes the place of God in our life is an idol and inevitably an idol leads us away from God. In order to overcome temptation like Jesus did, we must choose who we will worship and serve today and everyday of our lives. 

Prayer: Dear Lord, we ask that you will help us not be overcome evil but to overcome evil with good. Help us to worship you alone, to know your word better and to trust you with everything. In Jesus’ name. Amen.