Thought for Day - Monday 12 July

Matthew 4:4 (New Living Translation)   But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Firstly, can I apologise for the lateness of today’s offering?  Like with most other failures these days, I rely on my advancing years as an excuse! This passage of scripture tells of one of the temptations put to Jesus while he was fasting in the wilderness prior to commencing his ministry.  When Satan said: ‘if you are the Son of God, change these stones into loaves of bread’, Jesus famously answered him by quoting from Deuteronomy 8, v3 and explaining to Satan that ‘people need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God’ Jesus must have been extremely hungry at this time and Satan recognising this, put this specific temptation to him when he was at his lowest ebb physically knowing that he would most certainly have loved some bread or anything at all to satisfy his hunger.  Earlier we read that Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to face the trials set before him by the devil.  Jesus had the choice of doing what God wanted by facing these trials or doing what the devil wanted and giving in to temptation.  Some see parallels between the 40 days and nights Jesus was tempted in the wilderness to the 40 years the children of Israel spent in the wilderness prior to their arrival in the promised land when God provided them with heavenly manna when they were hungry.  Our Lord made the right choice putting his spiritual health before his physical health and just as God addressed the hunger of the Israelites, the Lord’s physical health was addressed by God after he had resisted all the temptations that were put to him.  Verse 11 tells us that after the devil went away ‘angels came and cared for Jesus’. It is interesting to note that the devil is cunning and will tempt us to do the wrong thing when it is our easy option.  This passage should remind us to look out for these situations and consider our spiritual needs and our relationship with our saviour before knowingly doing the wrong thing. Prayer Heavenly Father, we thank you for life itself.  There is hardly a week passes when we hear of folks at home and abroad whose lives have been struck by tragedy and whose lives are therefore so much less comfortable than our own.  Remind us to include these people that are worse off than ourselves in our daily prayers.  Help us be better at recognising situations when we are being tempted and Lord, help us make the right choice no matter how difficult that may be.    Amen