Our Walk and the Word

 

"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live." - Deuteronomy 8:3 When Satan tempted Jesus after He had been fasting and praying for forty days in the wilderness, he used the same techniques he has been using on men and women with great success for centuries. Yet against Jesus, they did not work at all. While Jesus was fully God, He was fully man as well, and He felt the full weight of the temptations. In His response, Jesus gave us a pattern we can follow: He used the Word of God in answer to every offer from the devil. It is impossible to live a victorious and productive Christian life apart from regular, consistent, habitual reading and meditating on the Scriptures. Just as food is the source of our physical strength, God’s Word is the source of our spiritual strength. It is instructive that the story of the manna God provided for the children of Israel is used to highlight the importance of the Bible. The food that God sent from Heaven in response to the Israelites’ need was unlike anything they had seen before. It was only available early in the morning. If the people waited too long to gather it, it would melt away in the sun. And it could not be stored up against the future. Except on the day before the Sabbath, the manna had to be gathered each day. If it was kept overnight, worms turned manna into an inedible mess. The principle is the same—we need to gather strength from the Word daily to walk in victory. Growth Point:  Keep the Word of God central to your thoughts and decisions on a daily basis, and you will see victory over temptation.