Temptations

Each of us have our own individual struggles we go through in life. A question I know I often ask myself or wonder is am I the only one that has gone through this? We tend to feel alone and fighting through something on our own and like we are the only person ever to have ever struggled or gone through what we did. I know that feeling all too well and it is not my favorite feeling. And then that's when we keep it inside because oh if anyone ever knew what we did or what we were thinking oh no, the temptations that haunted us. But that's not true, first of all I'm sure there's someone on earth who knows how you feel. Secondly, Jesus knows. I know everyone says Jesus got tempted the way you did, Jesus knows, Jesus understands. You may be thinking yeah right, Jesus, no way!

Look!!

He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry. Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. I will give it all to you if you will worship me.” Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say,

‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,

‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’ Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’ When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came. Luke 4:2-13.

(The blue are the temptation accounts)

1. The bread. He was tempted to not trust that God would provide for Him.

Aren't we tempted at times to take things in our own hands and be tempted to not trust Him? I have been!

2. The kingdoms. He was tempted with wealth, fame, popularity, glory, and power. We are tempted every day with these things. To have power and wealth and to be known.

3. Testing God. And the coolest thing to me is the Devil knows the scriptures too, but lies by omission. Here, the Devil tries to tempt Jesus to test God by testing His power and testing His care. I know we have all been tempted to test God. Test His goodness, faithfulness, to test Him in general.

And these are only THREE accounts of Jesus being tempted and all three we can relate to and see how we are tempted in those ways as well.

The other cool thing is Jesus' reply He replies every time with scripture. Not with anything else, but scripture, and He even catches the Devil's lie that he attempts to catch Jesus with and even combats that with scripture!!

You are not alone in your sufferings or your temptations. He understands and He knows. He understands the struggle of the temptations as well. He is with you, let Him and His Word be life, and be your weapon.