Monday meditation: in his temptation we find help for ourselves
Jesus himself was tempted and didn’t give in, which is helpful to realize. But the timing of his temptation is especially worth noting. It came just after the “spiritual high” of his baptism and the affirming voice of God thundering from the heavens: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Obviously, no one else ever received more support or greater praise. But to some degree, at least, any of us can relate. We all stand a little taller and walk a little surer when someone tells us, “Good job!” Any of us might lose our perspective after such an experience, focusing more on ourselves than on the mission at hand. We’ll still be great in God’s eyes, won’t we, even after a little slip? Don’t we deserve just a moment of selfishness?
The devil played on that human tendency when he came to Jesus in the wilderness. “Use your power for your own purposes,” he seemed to be saying. And Jesus rebuked him with truth from the Word of God.
“The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread’”
(Matthew 4:3, ESV).
That’s something else to note about this interchange. Jesus, the Son of God himself, chose a simple way to confront Satan’s assault. He quoted Scripture. Even devoted Christians can fall into the trap of reading about the Bible more than they read the Bible itself. The example of Jesus shows us that God’s Words can direct and comfort us like nothing else when we need the help the most.
And we all need help. God knows we caregivers need help! Sometimes we’re tempted to lose patience. Sometimes we want to run away. Sometimes we feel like shaking our fist at the sky and crying, “How much longer can I bear this?” Sometimes we slip perilously close to self-absorbed, silent self-pity.
God knows we caregivers need help!
Jesus understands. It seems this account reports only the beginning. Scripture tells us he “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Frankly, I find that difficult to grasp. I mentally skim through the list of my most common unholy compulsions, and I marvel that our perfect Lord faced them, too.
But now that a new set of temptations has plagues me on this “unchosen journey,” I’m compelled to confess them all to him. Nothing about the life of Jesus during his ministry years was easy, but much of my life has been. Now that I must face unanticipated tests of my commitment to God, surely Jesus knows and cares.
Scripture says he was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). I think I’ll make that the first verse to quote the next time I come close to losing my equilibrium.
Read: Matthew 4:1-11
Pray: Thank you, God, for sending your Son to be fully God but also fully human—fully God in that he was sinless; fully human in that he faced temptation just like mine. Help me to remember that he is Lord, not the devil whose lies insist that evil is good. Help me, God, to find truth in your Word to fend off the tempter’s notions this week.
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