Matt. 4:1-2 Then Jesus was led out into the
wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted there by the Devil. For forty days
and forty nights he ate nothing and became very hungry.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus was led into
the wilderness and why it is important for us to know? I believe that it was important for Jesus so
that He would be properly prepared for what was to come. Jesus was about to go through the most
intense period of temptation that anyone would ever know. He was going to be offered all that Satan had
to offer. He was going to be tempted on
the deepest levels of His soul. God knew
what was ahead for Him and so the Holy Spirit came alongside of Him and led Him
to a place where He would be prepared to handle the temptations.
Often we face our temptations and fail so
miserably because we are not prepared to handle them. We usually go with the flow of life and deal
with things as we face them instead of taking a proactive approach and live in a
state or readiness for whatever we face.
We then are blindsided and caught off guard. Instead of having our spiritual defenses in
place, we are vulnerable and often fail to withstand the temptations to sin.
Being prepared means we take our relationship
with God seriously. We take the time to
be alone with Him and draw from Him our strength and wisdom on how to resist
Satan. We arm ourselves with the Word of
God so that we can refute Satan’s assault.
It is what Jesus did. And when
Satan tried to twist the Word to accomplish his goal, Jesus properly handled
the Word and shut Satan down. It takes
time and focus to be able to effectively deal with temptations with the Word of
God, but it’s our only hope of being victorious.
Don’t wait until temptations strike to try and
overcome them. Arm yourself well
beforehand with the Word of God and fellowship with Him. You cannot defeat Satan on your own; he is
far too crafty and knowledgeable. Wait
on the Lord and He will renew your strength and equip your soul for what is
ahead.
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