A Revelation on Temptation

Jesus was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness where He fasted and prayed for 40 days. At this point the enemy expected to have a hay-day with Jesus because he looked at His physical condition and saw Him as vulnerable. So the first vice he used on Jesus was the same vice he used in the Garden of Eden: temptation with food!

The enemy gets his perception of us by what he sees from the outside, he does not know our thoughts except by our actions and words. The devil sees our weaknesses as cracks in our armor into where he may shoot his poison arrows. He wants to appeal to the fleshly, carnal side of man so he will often tempt with things such as food, power, sex and material possessions. He will even try to twist God’s word to get us to believe a lie and bring satisfaction to our flesh through it. “Just command these stones to be bread and you’ll have all the food you need. That’s why you have faith and power – so you can help yourself in these situations. God doesn’t want you to go without the things you need or desire” (Matt 4:4 paraphrased).

Jesus’ answer to these temptations was to be Himself, the Living Word. When he was pressed by the devil He oozed the life of God like a sponge being squeezed. When we are squeezed and pressed we will do the same – ooze what’s inside of us. Because there was no sin inside of Jesus there was no open door for the enemy to tempt Him and there was no ‘reward’ great enough to take His eyes off of God and the prize set before Him of redeeming our souls.

The temptations we struggle with reveal a spot where the heart hasn’t been yielded to the love of God, or a place where our affections have been removed from God and misplaced onto something that has deceived us. While we must walk in self control, we must all the more keep our affections on God - not because it will keep us from temptation, but because we have been created for union with Him.

Place your affections on the lover of your soul. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).