Thought of the Day !!

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.
Luke 4:1-2 (NRSV)

We've all been there. Since Adam and Eve ate from that dreadful tree in the Garden, we've all been tempted. Even Jesus was tempted. He'd gone to the river and was baptized by John the Baptist, having the Holy Spirit come upon him then. After that the bible states that the same Spirit led him into the wilderness (desert – NIV) to go through temptation. So when we are being tempted, we can know that Jesus even went through that and knows how we feel.

The temptation of Jesus by the devil was threefold. One was the temptation to turn a stone in to bread so that he could feed himself. One was the temptation to control the kingdoms of the world by worshiping the devil. And the last was to prove he was truly the Son of God by putting God to the test. (see Luke 4:3-13 for the rest of the story)

But all three of these can be seen as one major temptation for Jesus…one in which the devil would try continuously throughout his ministry to use against him. It was the temptation to take the easy way out over God's way.

The devil tries his best to convince us all to do this very same thing. We fall into this temptation when we allow ourselves to conform to the world instead of being transformed by God's will for us. It may come as a temptation to do what's popular instead of what's right, or it may come as a temptation to settle or a temptation to become complacent in our faith.

All these things are much easier than doing what God wills us to do and being what God wills us to be. But God has our own best interests in mind. We may ought to remember that when we fall into the temptations of the devil that he has HIS own interests in mind...not ours.

Following God may not always be the easy way. But it sure is the best way.

In the love of Christ,
greg