Matthew 4:1-2
Morale of the story - Son steps on a cockroach, daughter. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Jesus was tempted in the wilderness so that He could be prepared for what He was about to do on earth. There are several truths here. First, Jesus was tempted through the guidance by the Holy Spirit. God uses temptations to put us through trials. In the Bible, temptation and trial are two different things from different sources for different objectives. Temptation is from the devil, as it says in the Book of James that God doesn't tempt anyone. The outcome of temptation by the devil is that people will question God and even become distant from God. Trials, on the other hand, are from God, for He wants to purify our hearts through what we experience from the circumstance around us, and thus produce fruit of peace from us. Through trials, God also tempts us to shape our lives more like Him. Temptations and trials can happen at the same time; devil often uses the circumstance around us to tempt us, while God tests our hearts at the same time in order to see whether we truly fear God. The Bible mentions many times that God is the God who puts us through trials; when Abraham went to Mount Moriah and prepared to sacrifice Isaac, Genesis 22 clearly tells us that God wanted to test Abraham.
In Exodus, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and the Bible says that God wanted to test the Israelites to see whether theirs hearts would turn back to God. In New Testament time, in the story of five loaves and two fish, the Lord asked Philip where they should buy food for all these people, and the Gospel of John says that Jesus said that to test Philip. Unfortunately, Philip didn't know what Jesus was doing, and thus missed His work. May God help us to have sensitive hearts so that we can discern God's deeds, and be sensitive to what He's doing on us.
Second, the secret of overcoming any temptation is to fast and pray. Fasting is a type of exercise in prayer. The goal of fasting is not just to suffer, but to set ourselves apart, and to break out from our daily routine to focus on seeking God. Hunger and food represent daily life; we are often constrained by our daily life and cannot seek God wholeheartedly. Through fasting we may bring our hearts before God to be close to Him, and God will give us strength to overcome temptations daily. Fasting prayer in itself is not sacred, but through it our hearts can be set apart to be closer to God and understand His will. May God help us to understand His will through the trials that we encounter daily, so that His will for us may be done.
Pray with Pastor Tong
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