Dealing with testing

Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' " – Matthew 4v3-4

This is a very unusual setting. After spending forty days fasting in the desert Jesus was led out to meet Satan. The purpose was a great testing. It would show who Jesus was and who the opposition was. It would also determine the future, and it at the same time has a lesson for us.

Other than God’s leading I can’t imagine why Satan would try to tempt Christ. Maybe his pride was still there trying to achieve the goal he had been after since the early days. Who knows? But the truth is Satan came to test Jesus in the same areas that seem to always pop up in scripture – the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Jesus gave us a clear pattern of how to deal with temptation. Over and over Satan threw out temptations, even abusing scripture in order to get his point across.

Jesus had the answer. He had the same answer that will serve us today. He simply answered with scripture. Why? Because scripture is the one thing to which Satan and evil have no answer.

Bread or lands or power or money or anything else is not what it is all about. They will all pass away eventually. The answer to every trial and every temptation is found in the eternal words of God.

No matter what we face today lets looks to God’s word to find out how to be victorious over it.