Bread!

Bread!

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:4 KJV

First, Jesus is the Son of God. He didn't need the pressure, but would we have believed his offer of grace and help if He didn't go through the things we are presently going through now? He is the Son of God, yet He submitted to be baptised by a man He had created, and then also had to go through a private season of preparation for what was ahead. That is the second point: all of God's mighty work starts with a season of private dealing. What you see on the outside is a result of days, months or years of private preparation and intercession. 

All of God's assignments demand preparation. And if I think that God does not do anything to hurt his children, I would be right, as long as the basis of my thoughts has to do with the understanding that whatever God allows is leading me down the path of his perfect will. It was the Spirit that led Jesus to the desert to be tempted. Jesus knew what was coming, and so he prepared spiritually. The same too must apply to us. We cannot fight the battle ahead with man-made weapons, intellect, influence or connection. It has to be with the help of the One who knows what is ahead: the Holy Spirit. 

And when Jesus had stayed away from food, and at the end of the fast and prayers, the devil showed up. It is in our most vulnerable times that we must be careful of the choices we make and the decisions we take. The devil wanted to tie Jesus down to external and outward show of power to prove a point that He was the Son of God. Just as he did with Eve, he wanted to take God's Truth, spin it around and present it to Jesus as an attractive, self-indulgent option. Just as he told Eve, if you do what I tell you, you become wise and you become like God. Till today, the devil's tactics have not changed. He offers man the option of playing God, without any accountability to anyone but self. 

Jesus' response is quite instructive: He didn't bother addressing the question of His sonship, as that was not in doubt. He went down into the root of the matter: what is truly important to man's eternal destiny? Position, possession, provision and power are mere earthly tools which without the assurance of God's presence, are all a waste of time. If all I focus on are what makes my earthly stay comfortable, how do I prepare for the eternal? Bread is good, but it is limited to the physical. It is manifestly unable to sustain the work that God wants done. 

It is the Word of God that truly sustains life. Bread is good; but bread cannot sustain me in the place where God wants to take me to. Bread will come into the mouth and still pass out of the body as waste, but when the Word of God comes in, it leaves an eternal impression on that life. Bread cannot guarantee eternal life, but the Word of God, if accepted and believed, guarantees the kind of life God alone can birth and sustain. Which one am I truly pursuing? Which one lies at the heart of my daily pursuits? His time of favour is here.