“The tempter came to
him and said,
“If you are the Son
of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Matthew 4:3
Military leaders know
this ‘secret’ of the battlefield:
When you want victory
over your adversary you attack them at their weakest point.
Coaches employ this
same strategy on the playing field.
No wonder then that
the first temptation of the Lord in the wilderness concerned food.
We read this
concerning the tempting of Jesus:
“After fasting forty
days and forty nights, he was hungry.”
Is it any wonder that
the first temptation the devil tried was to appeal to Jesus to satisfy his physical
hunger (his momentary weakness at that point)?
But as weak as Jesus
may have been in His body, His Spirit remained firm as He rejected surrender to
the tempter and ultimately won the victory.
It is no different in
our lives.
As sure as the enemy
was in the wilderness taking notes of Jesus’ fast and certain hunger, he also notes
our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities, and works to exploit them.
Jesus knew the Word
of God.
Jesus was the Word
made flesh.
His victory came
through His knowledge of the Word and His desire to please the Father.
We too can find
victory through reliance on the Word of God and the desire to please God.
This was not simply a
good story line that Matthew recorded.
It was, and still is,
a powerful example Jesus gave us.
Surrender your
weaknesses to the Lord and not to the tempter.
In your weakness you
will find the Lords’ strength working in you.
Hide His Word in your heart and in so doing
you fortify yourself in the day of temptation.
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