Today's Readings: New Testament -
Matthew 4:1-11
1 Timothy 5:1-15
Old Testament -
Proverbs 7
Ezra 9
Click on Text Links to Read Online
Focus Verses: Matthew 4:1-4
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." 4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Insight:
In times of temptation and need, it is always wise seek God's guidance, strength, and provision. When tempted during his forty days in the wilderness, Jesus reflected on Israel's forty years in the wilderness. He answered the Tempter's challenge with the words Moses had given to his people as they were entering the land of promise.
Jesus understood the human impulse to take things into our own hands. He knew the temptation of turning to something or someone other than God for temporary relief. He remembered Moses' instruction and followed it in faith. He recited Moses’ wise words of admonishment as the guiding truth he needed in times of trouble.
The person who truly has faith in God will wait on the Lord, and look to him for the direction and help needed. Faith is tested and made strong through time spent in the wilderness.
Response & Action:
I need to trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding. I need to wait on the Lord and take in every word of truth and wisdom that comes from him. God's word can sustain me through difficult times and help me overcome temptation. I will spend time reading the Bible and meditating upon it.
I will prayerfully consider God's leading in my life and hold up my actions and choices and thoughts to the light of Scripture. In the face of temptation, I will look to God and wait on him for the strength to stand and the way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13).
Thank you for your word, O God. By the power of your Holy Spirit, lead, teach, transform, shape and strengthen me that I might delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your Name. Amen.
Spiritual Formation Verses: Deuteronomy 8:2-3
2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Resources:
Lies We Tell Ourselves: How to Say No to Temptation and Put an End to Compromise
by Greg Laurie
