temptations in the desert (part 1)
In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ temptation in the desert, Jesus has an extraordinary moment of blessing and favor. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, who I love; with him I am well pleased.’ This absolutely rocks any spiritual experience I’ve ever had in my life, and any experience I’ve read about. Yet, in the next moment we read that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. It’s outstanding. We can be sure that Jesus did not crawl through this season, but he walked through it, as the Son of God would. The story outlines 3 temptations we will face: (i) to neglect our spiritual lives, (ii) to pursue our own glory, and (iii) to put experience above faith.
To Neglect our Spiritual Lives
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’” One consistent temptation for me in the desert times is to neglect or deprioritize my devotional life with God. I grew up knowing that it is important to “read your Bible” everyday. Then when I got into high school it’s called quiet times or devotions. I believe and agree with the importance of these times set apart with God, but I struggle with actually developing a true devotional life. I was the typical roller coaster Christian who would read literally ten chapters a day for the two weeks after a revival or church retreat. Then several days later, my desire would fizzle until I would fall asleep with Bible in hand, and then finally stopped reading altogether.
How is turning stones into bread a temptation to sin?
It is a common and persistent test in each desert season because it strikes at the heart of the matter — what is my most essential need? The temptation is to forget or deprioritize our spiritual needs. Jesus quotes a passage from Deuteronomy – the complete sentence is: “Man does not live on bread alone but by every Word of God.” Jesus draws a comparison between bread and the Word of God to point out that we are more than physical beings; we are also spiritual beings. Jesus faces a temptation to put his physical need before his spiritual need. It is not a sin for him to use his power to turn stones into bread nor to eat that bread; it is a matter giving more importance to one over the other. To place the physical need over the spiritual need would be the mistake. With these temptations, it is not always a matter between choosing between right and wrong. The enemy is more subtle than that, more deceptive. If he can get you to choose what’s very important over what’s most important, he has succeeded in his task of stunting your growth.
To place the physical need over the spiritual need would be the mistake.
As a young Christian, I remember a time when I could sense my spiritual life with God is backsliding. I decide that I want to do something about it, and decided to go without food all of Good Friday, to spend that time in fasting and prayer. Around 9pm, 3 hours to go before I am allowed to break my fast, I’m hungry. As I pray and discuss my hunger with God, I feel God speak to my heart. He asks me to examine my hunger and how difficult it is for me to go without food. I think about it. God reminds that this is exactly how His Son living in my heart feels when I deny him the spiritual food. With that prayer and revelation, I absolve myself of fasting until midnight. I cook some food and eat a meal with my God, having realized how my choice to not eat spiritual food affected the life of the Son of God in me.
This struggle for consistency follows me to college. Then God sets me up for a miracle. The summer after my freshman year, I travel to Ethiopia for a short-term mission trip. During our training session, our group leader asks our team, “What does God want to give you through this time?” I pray to myself and feel God wants to give me in this land we are going to a consistent devotional life. It is something that God could give me as an act of grace after all. During the two or three months after I return from Ethiopia, my devotional life is filled with blessings and insights from God. And best of all, it’s consistent and regular – I feel like God fulfilled a promise to me and graced me with a consistent devotional life. But in the coldest parts of the New England winter, my discipline starts to fade. I do not want my devotional life to fade into the dust as before. I am not satisfied with a longer spiritual high. I want to grow up and mature into a consistent child of God. In order to do that I knew I need to be radical.
During those times I struggle with my devotional life again, I often try to wake up before my classes start at 11:15am and fail miserably. Through these trials and failures, God first shows me how my life revolves around other things and then leads me in a way of revolving my life around him. I need to make my devotional life the center of my day and revolve everything else around it. I’ve structured my life around my sleep cycle, my classes and my meal times. And I try to fit in my quiet times with God around those things. I have the discipline and drive to wake up in time for my 11:15am class but not the discipline to wake up earlier to squeeze in a devotion time. I use my desire for class and made a sacrifice. I say to myself that no matter what time I wake up, I’m going to start my day with a devotion time with God. If that means missing or being late for a class than that’s what it means. For my lack of disciplined sleep habits, why should my relationship with God suffer? I will pay the price of my grade suffering from missing too many classes or have to suffer the embarrassment of walking in 30 minutes late. I say, my devotion life is the center and everything else will revolve around that. After a few missed classes, it actually begins to work. I wake up that 30 minutes earlier to have devotion time and consistency again in my times set apart with God.
Why is it so hard to discipline myself to read the Bible every day?
After I start working at my first real job out of college, I find myself in a similar situation trying to find a consistent time. After more than two years of struggling to rediscover my devotional life in the working world, I come back the basics and the amazing lesson of grace of my college years. A devotional life is a promise I received years ago, and I still lay hold to that promise by the grace of God. If you’re like me, you want to get as much sleep as you can but you’re not so undisciplined that you’ll miss work or classes. We cry out and see such a lack of discipline in our lives, but in reality we do have discipline – but it is discipline in worldly aspects, not the spiritual. We’ve disciplined our bodies to eat food everyday at regular times. It is not that we lack discipline but it is that we are being tested and tempted to place that which is physical above what is spiritual. It is a choice that we make to set aside a time to go to work, to eat, to watch tv, or work-out everyday. The choice that we are called to make is to place our devotional life at the center of our lives and revolve everything else around that.
We cry out and see such a lack of discipline in our lives, but in reality we do have discipline - but discipline in worldly aspects, not spiritual
Words from the mouth of God are available to all who desire it. Like Job expresses, they are something to be treasured: “I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.” In the beginning I need the structure, and the morning times to be free from distractions and build discipline. I need little tricks like “No Bible, no breakfast” to form the habit of being consistent with my time with God. As I mature, I realize that mornings are indeed special times, but devotional life can look different for the changing seasons in our lives. The key principle is about setting apart your devotion time as the center of the day, that immovable appointment, in which everything else in our lives will revolve around.
Who am I? I’m not just a physical being, or an intellectual being or an emotional being. I am spiritual being first and foremost, and those spiritual needs need to be met first and foremost. God’s words, they give me life.
God’s words, they are my life.
Observation - Do you find it difficult or easy to place your spiritual needs as the center of your day?
Understanding - Describe your devotional life.
Application - Have a devotion time with God today.
Almost there! Read about Living by the Spirit in the last post of the fast track.
