Navigating Landmines

“Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.” Luke 4:1-2

I am really enjoying this Bible study called Determined by Heather M Dixon that centers around the walk of Jesus, and His determined choices to obey God all the way to death on the cross. It is a concentrated look into a time period when the Son of God took on human flesh to both save us and exemplify the walk for us. This morning I was taken into the wilderness to watch the exchange between pure evil and pure Jesus. Our passage gives us an overarching theme to which we all should pay very close attention: when we are at our lowest Satan tries his hardest. Satan had harassed and tempted Jesus every day from the moment the feet of Jesus hit the wilderness. The Son of God had eaten absolutely nothing the entire time He was there. Satan waited until the end of forty days to crank up the toughest temptation, knowing that would be when temptation would be the most difficult to fight. Jesus was lonely, hungry and most like exhausted. But Jesus showed us how to combat with the devil and his tempting ways. Each time Satan presented an opportunity for sin, Jesus spoke the words of God in response to being lured into the schemes of the devil. But what I noticed for the first time this morning is the actions of the devil are just as important as the actions of Jesus.

Not only are we shown how we are to navigate through tough circumstances like Jesus did, but this story also shows us what we are to expect from the tempter. Satan cannot steal our salvation once we have been indwelled with the Holy Spirit since we are sealed. The next best thing that he goes for is our relationship with God. He will always tempt us to doubt that God will provide for us in our hungry times whether our hunger is physical, emotional, financial or spiritual (Luke 4:3). Satan will always discourage us from believing God has complete authority, power and control over all circumstances (Luke 4:6-7). He will always try to convince us that we can save ourselves and others, not needing Jesus (Luke 4:10). Satan is just as determined to wreck our relationship with God as Jesus was to show the way to have a relationship with God. And we live in the tension between the two. But we know the end of the story and Satan loses and loses big!

Just like Jesus our focus while on earth should be how to navigate the landmines of sin and temptation that Satan places before us. We must recognize how Satan works in our individual lives. If we have a propensity to lie, he will tempt us to lie. If we have behavior that we do in private, he will attack us in our isolation. When we are at our weakest Satan works his hardest so we must be ready for the take down by arming our minds and hearts with the words of God. God’s commands and our obedience to them are our weapons and will protect us and guide us through our darkest days.