Read Matthew 2 Preparation of the King

But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4 NKJV)

Prior to Jesus beginning His ministry; He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. The devil came to tempt Him suggesting if He is the Son of God to turn the stone into bread after He had fasted forty days. Satan took this opportunity to try Him if He would response to his suggestion and words in agreement to satisfy His physical needs and take pride of Himself. Had He the power to do it? He multiplied the loaves and fish to feed the multitude. The essence here is the suggestion comes from Satan. The devil would ruin the mission of Jesus, if he could convince Jesus on this seemingly trivial thing to abandon a spiritual work into a means of satisfying His material need without reference to finding the will of God. In fact, he would be doing the will of the devil.

Jesus rebuked Satan quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, the only offensive weapon in all the Christian armoury (Ephesians 6:17). We overcome the devil with the Word of God and in the name of Jesus the Christ. Our source of help in every situation is to have the Word of God so engraved in our inner being, that we will be able to draw our strength from the Word.

Satans temptations are plausible. They often seem to be only urging us to do what is good and proper. We are not to think, therefore, that because a thing may seem to be good in itself, that therefore it is to be done. The first thing that the person must do is try to discover what God is doing through the deprivation, what spiritual growth is desired and how it should be achieved. This would show that one does not live by bread alone, but by everything that God says and does.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You had being tempted as I am. You are touched of my infirmities. You are my Bread of life. I am nourished and empowered to overcome the evil ones through the power of Your word. Let the confession of my mouth be Your word whenever I am tempted. My provision, strength and love come not out of my own effort but in alignment to Your word.

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