Always Emily

A Bible study I’m going through pointed out a new detail I hadn’t noticed in Matthew 4. The first 11 verses of this chapter are about Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness and His temptation by the devil.

Verse 2-3 says “After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Did you notice the “then” at the beginning of that second sentence?

Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil for 40 days, yet the devil didn’t even show up until day 40. Why would that be? Talk about procrastination, right?

But what the devil did was sneaky and calculated. He didn’t show up day 1 when Jesus was still full from breakfast, or day 10 when He was growing tired, or even day 20 when His stomach was sure to be growling.

He came on day 40, when he knew Jesus would be at His absolute hungriest, weakest self.

That’s how the devil works. You won’t see him hanging around when you’re super healthy and life is going great. He’s going to swoop in when things start to look a little desperate, when it feels like light is difficult to find. That’s when he’ll tempt you with something that feels like a solution, but will just pull you deeper into your despair.

But the counter of that is Jesus Himself. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The solution to our troubles isn’t a bandaid or a quick fix, it’s Jesus Himself.

A friend told me that Jesus does want to show up as our healer. But He doesn’t want to just move us through our trials and heartache, He wants to meet us in it.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul quotes Jesus: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”

Jesus is our healer. He is our savior, but He also is our friend.

I don’t want the Jesus that rushes in, slaps a bandaid on all my problems, and then rushes away to someone else in need. I want the Jesus that walks with me, meets me in my heartache, and stays with me through it all.

The next time you are faced with temptation–because believe me it’s coming–think of these images: you can let the devil take you further into darkness and leave you there, or you can walk with Jesus towards the light.

Let Jesus take your weakness and turn it into strength.

Always,

Emily