Today, I am blessed to share a reflection from my friend and our Worship Director, Josh Barella. I’m sure you will be as blessed by his words as you are.
--John
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted (Heb. 2:18).
Directly following Jesus' baptism at the hands of John the Baptist, "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matt. 3:13-4:1). The Bible doesn't tell us that God was well pleased with his beloved son so he set up a golden footstool and thus Jesus' ministry began. No, the first thing he called his son to was to be delivered into the hands of evil to be tempted.
The first thing Lauren told me after I was baptized, besides, “I'm proud of you,” and, “I love you,” was, “Be prepared.” I thought that odd, considering. At that time in my walk with Christ, I was no stranger to naïveté and had reassured myself in the quiet place that baptism would scare away all my demons, that I would be made whole by the water grave, never to fall from grace again. On the contrary, my bride's words bore much truth. I had not prepared myself in the least. I did not understand the battle that was being waged over my flesh. As I wandered into the wilderness and temptation spoke, I listened and gave myself over to him as simply and effortlessly as one succumbs to sleep after anesthesia is administered at the surgeon's office.
It was that same wilderness where, Jesus, despite being fully God, was also fully man, and he too was tempted. Though unlike me, Jesus was prepared.
[T]he tempter came to him and said, 'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.' Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'" (Matt. 4:3-4).
We know that in the wilderness, the Israelites grumbled to Moses about being hungry so much so that God provided them with sustenance in the form of bread from heaven (manna) in the morning and quail at nightfall (Ex. 16). The devil, in tempting Jesus, knew that the Lord could point to anything and transform it into something to eat: a boulder into a buffalo, a pebble into a pastry.
This is important.
The devil tempts us much in the same way. He does not appear to us and ask us to conjure something from nothing—we are incapable of that. But we are capable of such things as greed, gluttony, envy, addiction, slander, anger, malice . . . evil. The enemy is cunning. Peter calls him a lion on the prowl, seeking a morsel to devour, but, Peter also reminds us to cast all our anxieties on Jesus because he will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us (Pet. 5:7-10).
It is through prayer, then, supplication, that we cast our burdens on him; and how do we pray? The disciples tell us to ask God to give us this day our daily bread (Matt. 6:11). As the Israelites were freely given manna to sustain them in the wilderness, so are we in the wild of our own lives. The Lord is faithful; he will surely do it (1 Thess. 5:24).
So do not be afraid, for you will be tempted, but you are not alone. The counselor is for you and he is with you, and though you "do not know what to pray for as [you] ought, the Spirit intercedes for [you] with groanings too deep for words" (Rom. 8:26). And the bread he gives us is real.
The enemy is able, yes, but so are we. Stand firm then, "put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil," (Eph. 6:11) for the one who fights for us is a high priest, he who has been tempted in every way, able to sympathize with our weaknesses, yet is without sin (Heb. 4:15).
Praise God for Our Savior, Jesus Christ.
I pray over you; whatever you may face at the hands of the deceiver, may you find provision in the hands of the Father, abundant and full of grace and freely given.
Bless you, now and always.
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Photo by Mitchell Soeharsono on Unsplash