Temptation

People find it odd when they find out desserts are not a strong pull for me. I can usually take them or leave them, and on top of that, I am picky about what I take. Don’t get me wrong I have desserts I really like, for instance, Reece’s Peanut Butter cups, Dove milk chocolate, and chocolate cake (and only chocolate cake). Watch me, if white cake is out for an event I will never take it. I will tell you it is not worth the calories, but honestly, it is not even tempting in the least.

Temptation can be like that based upon our personalities. We are all susceptible to different things. When someone is not susceptible to something we are, we can be jealous or suspicious of their lack of temptation. Just as we all have unique interests and strengths, we have different temptations as well.

Lent is a great time to talk about temptations. During this season of the church year, we move to more sacrificial, and certainly reflective, topics and behaviors. We do this in all sorts of ways. We worship more— Sundays and Wednesdays. Some even take on the long time Catholic-originating tradition of giving something up. By now you might know my bent of how I really don’t like this Lenten tradition. Regardless, I do like the idea of us taking steps to observe the sacrifice of Christ. I think the ideal is when one takes on something new to start serving or growing in Christ in a new way.

It is not fun at all to compare our temptations to those of someone else, but it is even worse to compare how Christ handled His temptations to how we handle ours. Sure, we get to see that He is fully human, but we also know He handles everything perfectly. Us? Not so much. It can make us feel so down. This is where the Gospel comes in, to remind us Christ did this so we could enjoy all the blessings of being His forgiven child. There is something else that we can take from the story of Christ’s temptations, and that is His response. Jesus uses the Word to respond to Satan’s taunts.

The power of God’s Word cannot be stated enough. It is an amazing book! The Word is strong, and cuts through the hearts of people. This weekend we take time to reflect on how Jesus handled temptation, what it teaches us, and as we journey through Lent, the great benefits of being in the powerful Word of God.