"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit... was LED by the Spirit into the wilderness where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil..."--Have you ever thought how odd it is that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into temptation... Not that the Spirit was the one tempting him, but it seems like it was intentional that Jesus be tempted.
The first humans (in Genesis three) had been tempted and had failed to resist the temptation... now Jesus, as a Human, was also being tempted... but he resisted and did not give in...
In resisting temptation, Jesus demonstrates that humans do not have to give in. We can live a different kind of life. There are many stories in the Bible were good people are tempted. Many times, even good people give into the temptation... but not always. Sometimes God allows us to be tested as a way of deeping our faith...
Sometimes our tests and temptation test the depth of our love for Christ....
Sometimes though our temptations serve as a notice to the devil and the world... a notice that there are some crazy humans on this planet that love God and are trying to resist sin and selfishness... In other words... God believes in us and knows that when we resist temptation we are a testimony to the world, and even to the devil himself that God is worthy of our obedience and love.
How cool is it that the God of the universe loves you and believes in you...
How cool is it that when we resist temptation God uses us as an example, even to the spiritual world....
You can do it... you can resist the temptation and even the devil himself, because of what Christ has done.
PS... the pictures in of the wilderness and the jordan river were taken by my father in law mike on a recent trip to Israel.
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