January: Walking in Faith: temptation

Sometimes, I find it necessary to sit down, open Matthew, and just get familiar with the words in red. If I want to follow Jesus, how better can I know Him, than to read the words that came from his very mouth.  Today, as I read of His baptism, it dawned on me, "If Christ, the sinless man, said He wanted to be baptized because it is 'proper to be able to fulfill all righteousness,' than it appears that baptism is pretty important!" I am not sure that as a 12 year old, I fully recognized what baptism was about, for me it was simply keeping me outta hell, not helping me fulfill righteousness. My poor little confused self, certainly had no idea that the Holy Spirit came to Jesus immediately after His baptism and that upon these two occurrences, Satan began tempting Him. Have you ever made the choice to "get right" or made a declaration to "rededicate" your life to Christ, maybe you took a step towards God, and you felt  like you were finally growing, and then BAM! You were hit with trial or temptation. Don't be discouraged, you are in Good company; The Holy Son of God had this exact predicament.  The Word even says Jesus was led By The Spirit To Be Tempted!!! Ponder this, the Spirit led Him to be tempted, that is one thought we like to skip over:) So, what did He do to battle the bully, Satan, when he came? He met every temptation with Scripture. Every time the devil threw something at Him, you can bet "It is written" came from His mouth. Ya know what happened, "the devil left Him and angels came and attended Him."  What does this have to do with us? When you are walking w/ the Lord, you will be tempted, there will be trial, even if you are doing all the right things, in that instance: meet it with Scripture, be ready to say to Satan "It is written." If you have to, look up verses pertaining to your struggle, carry them in your pocket, and read them when the moment comes!! Then something beautiful happens: the enemy will eventually leave and angels will swoop in and help your healing. I like this image, battling with the flesh using verses from our Bible, darkness fleeing the scene, and unseen angels doctoring our wounds. That is something to take comfort in. Simply knowing Jesus had it happen to Him, He didn't succumb- He battled, we are told to Follow Him. We can do this.