PRAYER + PRAISE
Living by Every Word that Proceeds from the Mouth of God
- Adam Cole // February 26, 2010
Matthew 4: 1-4 —Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
God puts us through periods of our life where we may undergo serious contemplation and serious reflection, both inwardly on ourselves and outwardly toward Him. In these periods, it is often we may be tested, so as to overcome the tests in front of us and be transformed, transformed more to His intended shape for each of us and ultimately closer to His standard of pureness and holiness.
Jesus Christ Himself walked through this type of period, when He was led by the Spirit to spend time in the desert, right after being baptized by John in the Jordan River, where He knew He would be tempted by Satan. The Bible explains that Jesus was in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, fasting the entire time He was there. Why exactly Jesus went on such a mission is not explained, other than He was led by the Sprit. But we can infer that He wanted to separate Himself, to truly come into God’s presence by not only separating Himself by withdrawing from others into the desert but also by taking on the fast, which was to separate Himself from the pleasures of food and solely onto the pleasure of God’s presence.
The moment of truth, if you will, for Christ in this time was when He directly faced the devil, who tempted Him, by encouraging Him to disregard the fast and to turn the stones into bread. Jesus replied: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” These were the same words used by Moses in Deuteronomy 8:3, at time when the Israelites were coming to the end of their 40 years of wandering in the desert; Moses sought to point out to them God’s great provision, yet also to illuminate the deepness of His provision was not just to fulfill a physical hunger but also spiritual one. The Israelite leader wanted to make clear that God wanted their whole hearts, for them to follow His commandments diligently, and not just take His food and blissfully full. Jesus says the same thing, essentially in a much different context, suggesting to the tempter that even if He were to turn a stone to bread, it would not be sufficient, for His sufficiency was from the Father, and that in keeping the fast, in keeping true to a commitment to the Father, by digesting His word, it was far more fulfilling.
May we be like Christ, in challenging ourselves with desert periods, times when we intentionally take ourselves away from the ways of this world and into the ways of Him—and take a stand as He did, so that we are filling ourselves with the spiritual things of God and not the material things of this world.
Praise: That He calls us into a desert place to be solely in Him.
Prayer: That we set ourselves a part with and for Chirst.
Prayer for Today: Lord, thank You for calling us to be different and calling us to be in union with You. May we seek You and set ourselves a part for You. You indeed give us the strength to endure temptation. May we be transformed into Your liking as we overcome all of the devil’s works and be full by Your great and mighty essence in us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.