Have you ever been in a situation when you see something that you have been needing/wanting since forever, and there’s this voice in your head, ‘Go ahead, just take it, you know you want it’?
Jesus experienced this too in Luke 4:1-4! He had been fasting for 40 days in the wilderness, and as I have said before, He was not alone. The devil was there lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to make the Son of God Himself fall. He knew that Jesus was hungry, and that’s why he said, ‘Turn this stone to bread’.
You see, the devil knows what we want/need and he will use any weakness to make a child of God fall. How can we respond to this? Let’s take a look!
Both the devil and Jesus knew He could turn the stone into bread, just by snapping His fingers, but what did He do instead?
He quoted Scripture! He said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”‘ (Luke 4:4, quoting Deut. 8:3. )
By remembering and quoting Scripture, He knew that life isn’t just about earthly goods, and that the Word of God is the key to true sustenance. As the Psalmist said, ‘Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.’ (Ps. 119:11)
So, my friends, a soldier does not learn to fight when the war begins, he learns to fight in a time of peace. Jesus didn’t bust out the Torah* when the devil started tempting Him, He memorised Scripture beforehand because He knew He would be tempted.
The same goes for us! We should try to memorise Scripture for the following reasons:
- 1. So that we know what is wrong and what is right
- 2. So that we can identify the devil’s lies
I hope this has been an encouragement and until next week, God bless!
*The first five books of the Old Testament
Eden A.
rooted-mag.com 