Written for the Glory of God by Marianne Leventry
Jesus full of the Holy Spirit was led by the Spirit in the desert where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing for those days and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God tell this stone to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written, 'Man does not live on bread alone.'"
-Luke 4:1-4
"Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil." We pray and recite these words from the Lord's Prayer often, but do we spend time really thinking about these words? So many times, we think if we follow God, we should not be tempted, but Jesus was tempted, so why shouldn't we be tempted as well?
I think many of us could say we have been tempted by food at some point in our lives. Hunger can make us act in odd ways. Jesus said, "we should not live on bread alone."
There was a time in my life that I did not eat much more than bread. It literally hurt to eat almost every food. I could count on my fingers the food I could eat. Thankfully, bread was one of those foods, and to this day, bread neutralizes the effect of what certain foods do to my body.
I am from an Italian family. Many times in the last 10 years, my mom would say, "Don't you want to try a piece of pizza or some lasagna?" MY response every time is, "No, because I know how it would make me feel." Lately, I have wondered if that should be my response when I am tempted in other ways. No, I am not going to do this because I know how it would make me feel later.
Once again, Jesus says, "Man does not live on bread alone." He is not just talking about eating food for our body, but also food for our other needs--our spiritual needs for feeding our soul.
I think the most important part of this scripture is that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. This is our warfare to fight the devil and temptation. We are blessed with His Holy Spirit to help us with our temptations. The more we spend time reading, contemplating and praying His words, the more prepared we are to face our temptations.
We just need to be quiet enough to hear His voice in our times in the wilderness. He did not come to exempt us from temptation. He came to give us strength to face our temptations with Him by our side!
Dear Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit, fill our hungry hearts with you and remind us that you are beside us always! Amen!
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