In the book of Matthew 4:1-11, before Jesus began His ministries, He was led by the Holy Spirit to the wilderness to be tempted by satan. He then fasted for 40 days and 40 nights before He was tempted. So, Jesus was exhausted, weak, hungry and alone and He was purposely led there to be tempted. The question is why?
There are believers out there who think that once they have Jesus in their heart that the devil will not dare to temp them. It is quite the contrary; once we have Jesus, the devil will do anything to tempt us and make us fall and bow down to them just like the way they temp Jesus to make Him kneel down to the devil. If the devil dare to tempt Jesus, what would hold them back from tempting us?. They don’t need to deceive those who don’t believe in Jesus because they are already belonging in their grasp. So they focus their attention and their effort to us who believe in Him.
Jesus wants us to fast so that we learn to refrain ourselves from falling into temptation. Food is the one thing that we absolutely need to live. We love great food. If we can hold ourselves back from eating delicious looking food when we are hungry, then we might be able to hold back from other temptations that the devil is throwing at us. Fasting train our mind to hold on to our principles and when we are weak, we are more likely to depend on God and not our own strength.
It is important to us to read our bible so that we can use the Word of God to rebuke the temptation of the devil as Jesus did. He used the Word of God to answer every time the devil tempted Him. the Word of God has power and it changes circumstances, it changes lives, it is given to us so that we can trust in the Lord; trust in His love to us and be more than conquerors.
On the last temptation, Jesus told satan to go away and he left Him. This holds the key to fight the devil; not only we have to renew our mind with the Word of God so that we won’t be corrupted, but in James 4:7, it says that we have to submit to God and resist the devil and he will flee from us, just like what Jesus did. Fight the devil with the Word of God. God has given us power, weapons and Jesus Himself to live in us to fight the devil. We are more than conquerors and at the end we will be with our God for eternity.
James 4:7
Daily prayer
Lord Jesus, I trust in You and You have shown me the way to fight the enemy. I will read and meditate on Your Words day and night and I will resist the devil and submit myself only to You. Write my name in the book of life as I want to spend eternity with You. In the Name of Jesus I pray.
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