Luke 4:1-13

New Living Translation (NLT) The Temptation of Jesus

4 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,[a] 2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.3 Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’[b]”5 Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. 7 I will give it all to you if you will worship me.”8 Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say,‘You must worship the Lord your God
    and serve only him.’[c]”9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! 10 For the Scriptures say,‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you.11 And they will hold you up with their hands
    so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’[d]”12 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’[e]”13 When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.

I’ve only fasted a handful of times in my life- the longest being 24 hours, so I can’t even begin to imagine the pain Jesus’ body endured when he ate nothing for 40 days.

Why on earth would the Holy Spirit lead him into the wilderness to be tempted on an empty stomach? Why would God the Father send His son into a vicious battle with the enemy without the strength to fight him? Because God was in control….and His power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

In my life, I have endured many temptations, just as we all have. Some have been physical, some have been emotional and some have been spiritual. The hardest ones by far are those in the wilderness, where I felt unprepared to fight.

When we are starving for something we cannot fulfill ourselves, the enemy will use every opportunity he can to force us to bow down and worship him. The question is: will we ignore the pain in our body that is crying out to be fed, or the pain in our soul which is demanding justice for something that happened to us that isn’t “fair” or will we engage our spirit, set our will and let the Holy Spirit battle for us?

When we choose to worship the Lord God and serve Him only, not only will He nourish our body, soul and spirit, but he will use our wilderness experiences to display His glory to those around us. Because God was and always is…..in control.

Psalm 38:4 New Living Translation (NLT)

4 My guilt overwhelms me—
it is a burden too heavy to bear.

Last night, while preparing breakfast for dinner, I had another meltdown. As the bacon fumes began to rise through the air, so did my anger. I had already been snippy with our daughter over something stupid, so when I broke 4 egg yolks in a row while attempting to flip pancakes, fry eggs and grade schoolwork I LOST IT!

As broken egg shells went hurling through the room into the sink I loudly commanded “everyone out of the kitchen…I’m going to loose it. Go….NOW!” While listening to the sound of footsteps scurry out of the room, I grabbed for the spatula to turn another flapjack and quietly muddled “what’s going on, Lord?!” When He whispered His reply, I began to weep…right over the griddle…right over those broken eggs.

It wasn’t so much His answer that broke me, it was the realization that I continue to succumb to the same sin over and over and over again. Although the Lord has enabled me to take back some of the ground the enemy has stolen from me in this area, I continue to be deceived by his crafty schemes in his pursuits to rob my time.

Time.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day to get things done, but we don’t all have the same purposes to fulfill within them. So, why do I continue to do things, which are outside of what God has called me to do?

Answer: I’m spending too much time being a man pleaser, not a God pleaser.

 

As my Father whispered to me “you aren’t saying ‘no’ ” I instantly knew that the burden of always saying “yes” to others is too heavy for me to bear. My soul was a broken egg- crying out to be scooped back up into my Father’s arms and just like Humpty Dumpty, be put back together again.

So today, instead of gathering all the kings’ horses and all the kings’ men I went straight to the King and asked for His forgiveness. As always, He promptly gave it…and then He restored my soul to the place in which it belongs- focused on pleasing Him.

Psalm 23 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.

2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.

3 He restores my soul;

 Now, I wonder how long before He gives me the opportunity to apply this life lesson?

Answer: Probably before I crack another egg for breakfast in the morning!

Lord, Help me to always say “yes” to you. Help me to ask you before I say “yes” to anyone else. Give me the courage to say “no” when you tell me to- regardless of the consequences. May I learn to be more like your servant, Paul:

Galatians 1:10 American Standard Version (ASV)

10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? or am I striving to please men? if I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ.

James 1:21-24 New Living Translation (NLT)

21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

My mother has an antique dressing table in my parents guest bathroom where she, my sister and I have sat and applied our war paint for decades. Through the years, as our eye sight has dwindled, she’s added several magnifying mirrors in order for our process to be more effective. The newest one must be magnified 100 times because when I looked into it recently, I gasped! Is that my face? I don’t have blemishes and wrinkles and zits at this age! As I caught a glimpse of the “imperfections” staring back at me, my initial instinct was to turn away and ignore them….but what good would it do to pretend that my skin is “perfect” and doesn’t need some routine maintenance? Instead, I pulled out the tweezers and zit pickers and went to work.

James understood the importance of routine maintenance in our lives. Though we are saved by grace, it doesn’t mean we don’t need to check our soul regularly for zits, mole hairs and other filth that we’ve acquired. When I was first saved I didn’t feel the need to talk to God very frequently about my sins, because, as I understood it, He’d already forgiven me, so why bring them up? Its only been in recent years that He revealed to me that is true- every sin; past, present, future is forgiven….but in order to stay submitted to the Father’s will as Jesus was, I must daily- if not hourly, humble myself before Him and allow His word- written or spoken- to correct me, when needed.

2 Timothy 3:16 New Living Translation (NLT)

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.

When we fail to surrender our pride & repent for all the ways we put our will above His, we are filling our souls with filth. Eventually, if not extracted, that yuck will pile up into a HUGE black head, which takes a great amount of force to dig out.

As disciples, if we want our lives to reflect Jesus, we need to do more routine maintenance. We must be willing to look into the mirror and allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse us….and then obey what He says. After that, we can effectively apply our war paint for the battle that lies ahead.