Fifth Week
Do You Trust That God Will Provide?
Last week we looked at how Jesus responded to Satan’s attempts at persuasion.
Remember…
Satan approached Jesus in the wilderness to test Him after forty days of fasting. I know that I keep mentioning that, but it seems significant to me. Why would you ask someone to turn rocks to bread (Matthew 4:3-4, Luke 4:3-4) in a moment when they were already to the point of starving? I’ll tell you why!
On some level, Satan must have accepted the fact that he could only address the Son of God in a weakened state.
Think about how children often ask for something that they know their parents will say no to. A child will often ask for what he wants from the parent who is more likely to give in, and sometimes kids are even so crafty as to ask when that parent is distracted or tired. Satan was following this same line of reasoning with Jesus. He must have known that he was addressing a powerful individual—Jesus was not and never will be equal to us, His brothers and sisters. For this reason, the devil approached Jesus when He was already in a weakened state.
Even in a diminished, hungry state, Jesus Christ showed that He could easily deal with Satan’s promptings and even His own hunger when He leaned into the truth of Scripture and relied on His heavenly Father.
Jesus trusted God the Father, but do you?
Friends, that is the topic for today.
As we move through this season of Lent, we come closer to Easter. If you can’t trust God, then I don’t know if you can fully accept the completely selfless sacrifice that leads directly into Easter Sunday!
So let’s bring our minds back to Jesus’ time of fasting in the wilderness.
The readings from days five, seven, and nine each focused on three different promptings from Satan to Jesus. You’ve read about:
the power of God’s Word in our lives as a way to sustain us,
the ways that we test God (for good or bad),
and the sad truth of idols in our lives.
While Jesus was tested on these three points, He didn’t take the devil’s bait. As we prepare our hearts for Easter, my hope is that we can grow into a deeper dependence on and trust in God’s provision, one that mirrors Jesus’.
Let’s look at the three gospels that record this moment when God showed His trustworthy nature through Jesus’ experience in the wilderness.
Matthew wrote for a Jewish audience. His focus was to show them that Jesus was the Messiah.
“Then the devil left Jesus, and angels came to help him” (Matthew 4:11 CEV).
2. Mark wrote to a Gentile audience. While he wasn’t one of the original twelve disciples, his connection with Peter gave him unique insights in Jesus’ ministry.
“At once God's Spirit made Jesus go into the desert. He stayed there for forty days while Satan tested him. Jesus was with the wild animals, but angels took care of him” (Mark 1:12 CEV).
3. Luke also wrote to a Gentile audience. Like Mark, he wasn’t one of the original eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry, but was a traveling companion to Paul. Also interesting to note—he addressed this gospel (and the Book of Acts) to a man named Theophilus.
“After the devil had finished testing Jesus in every way possible, he left him for a while” (Luke 4:13 CEV).
While these gospels were each written by a different man, in a different time, and for a different audience, there is a commonality that my mind has fixated on. The devil left without achieving his goal, and Jesus Christ was cared for by angels.
God the Father saw what His Son endured and what He needed. Then, God provided.
He could see that His Son was hungry and thirsty. He also saw how His Son used holy words from the past to refute every test that the devil could dole out. He didn’t leave Jesus to starve in the desert. He sent angels to care for His Son.
When you are faced with a moment that feels like a test, what do you do?
When you feel the pull of temptation on your heart and mind, where do you turn?
Friends, you are going to feel tempted and tested every day. I can guarantee that reality.
Do you speak too freely, sometimes gossiping about others or using hurtful words?
Do you think about being intimate with someone other than your spouse?
Do you go along with unethical projects at work if they are pushed by your supervisor?
Do you want to buy *more* just to keep up with the people around you?
Do you catch yourself lying when asked questions that lead into hard conversations?
It may be the devil’s dark forces of this world or it may be the sinful desires that all of us already have in our hearts, but it will happen. We don’t have to go through forty days of fasting in the wilderness to feel pulled away from God’s goodness or the truth that He wants to provide His love.
When we are faced with tests or temptations, we have to remember that God will provide a way out for us. Jesus modeled this for us! Jesus felt hunger and thirst. He was presented with words that questioned His identity. Yet He didn’t forget who God was and still is through any of those moments.
Like Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “You are tempted in the same way that everyone else is tempted. But God can be trusted not to let you be tempted too much, and he will show you how to escape from your temptations” (1 Corinthians 10:13 CEV).
I wonder if part of this showing us how to escape temptation is found in Jesus’ modeling for us.
I wonder if God guided each author of the sixty-six books of the Bible to record His truths so that we, His people, could recall His words in moments when we feel our weakest.
Another idea that Paul wrote to the Corinthians just popped in my mind. Like he said in reference to a pain he had to endure, “But he [God] replied, “My gift of undeserved grace is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak.” So if Christ keeps giving me his power, I will gladly brag about how weak I am. Yes, I am glad to be weak or insulted or mistreated or to have troubles and sufferings, if it is for Christ. Because when I am weak, I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 CEV).
So maybe feeling the temptation or seeing the test is not what we have to be on guard against. Maybe it is just in how we respond to them.
If I can turn to God as soon as I feel a temptation, then He can walk with me through it. If I continue reading my Bible, continue talking to and listening to God through prayer, and continue learning how to truly worship Him, my temptations will hold no power over me.
When I can trust in God’s provision, then the things in my life that fill me with anxiousness and anxiety will pale in comparison to His love and light.
You know what?
I haven’t given up anything for Lent this year.
But you know what else?
I am pushing myself to study Jesus’ time in the wilderness. And as I do that I am also breaking down in tears on a weekly basis because I am seeing over and over again how much He desires our hearts. Through this process that you are all in with me, God is showing me that I can persevere and stick with a project that honors Him. And that is the work that I truly want.
I pray for that desire to work in a way that honors God over all of you who are reading this too. ♥️