We all struggle. For Christians, the faith walk can be hard and arduous, filled with pitfalls and potholes that if we’re not looking, seem impossible to avoid.

My morning devotions have been in the Gospel of Luke, and it’s been an amazing time in the Word each day. This past week, I started chapter four, where we find our Lord’s temptation in the wilderness. What I’ve learned here has been so powerful. And I mean that literally, as in, when we really look into this passage, we can be assured that God gives us the same power to resist temptation. In fact, there’s so much here that God has really been challenging me about sharing it. I’ve struggled with how though. Because none of my words seem efficient or big enough. So I’m planning on posting some videos on my socials to help summarize, and then a blog series here over the coming week. Because I think we forget just how much power we have over Satan and sin. God has given us the victory, we just need to recognize it and seize upon it.

Observations from Christ’s Temptation

There’s a few things I think it’s important to note from this passage.

1. Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost. He’d just been baptized. God had just told everyone present that this was His beloved Son, and that He was well pleased with Him. Now as believers, the moment we receive Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to reside within us. But the Bible many times talks about being filled with the Spirit, which is something different. The Holy Spirit might live inside us, but we don’t always allow Him to reign. We don’t always give Him access to all of our life. I’ve heard it explained this way sometimes: our house may have electricity, but we have to flip the light switch in order to benefit from the power. When the light switch is off, the power is still available, it’s just not being used. I don’t think we can underestimate the need for Holy Spirit power every day in our life. And I’m afraid that many times we live with the power turned off.
2. Jesus is led into the wilderness. He is alone. Just Him and God. Support systems are wonderful. I highly recommend them. But in this passage, there is no support system for Jesus. His disciples haven’t been chosen yet, and they aren’t even present. It’s just Jesus, God…and the devil. I think God wants us to see, that we can have victory over the devil even when we’re alone. Accountability and support is important. And we should avail ourselves of those things when possible. But when it’s not possible….we can still overcome.
3. Jesus was being tempted of the devil every single one of the forty days. God tells us exactly what He wants us to know, but He doesn’t include every detail. The end of the Gospel of John tells us that Christ performed so many miracles and works that the world would be filled with all the books about them. And obviously, though the Bible is a big book, it doesn’t record every single thing. In this passage, God chose to only give us three examples of the tempting Jesus endured. Can you imagine how long Luke would be if He chose to tell us about all 40 days? I think we forget that the devil was after Jesus just like he’s after us–at His weakest moment. And Jesus had to resist him, just as we do.

Tomorrow, I’ll share some more about the first temptation from Luke’s recording. Maybe when we look to Christ’s example through His time of testing, we can learn something about how God can help us when we’re facing the enemy.