Do you spend too much time on the stuff that won't last?
Deuteronomy 8:1-3 "Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors.
2 Remember how the LORD your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey His commands. 3 Yes, He humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Matthew 4:1-4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. 2 For forty days and forty nights He fasted and became very hungry. 3 During that time the devil came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread." 4 But Jesus told Him, "No! The Scriptures say, 'People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
God's people traveled through the wilderness on a trip that took them a lot longer than it did for most people. Moses told the nation that God took them the long way home so that the would learn some difficult lessons, they needed to learn to be humble, to be obedient and to trust God.
God allowed them to go through difficulty to prove their character. Through it all God became their source of life, fed them each day, he gave them water to drink and he taught them how to live to please him.
Jesus was in a similar situation, he was tired and hot, he didn't have any food or water, but his reaction was nothing like Israel's. Satan got the people of Israel to doubt that God is good and he is dependable but that trick didn't work on Jesus.
Jesus response to Satan shows us that God's word is more important than physical food.
The eternal is way more important that the temporary but we get stuck with our focus on the things that won't last. I can get stuck in the wilderness and think that it is so terrible but there may be some eternal good that God is working in my life. Maybe he put me there so that I can grow stronger spiritually.
Our spiritual condition is a lot more important that our physical condition. I need to have a spiritual hunger and I need to actively feed that hunger.
I need to be "digging the word" daily, I need the power of God's word in my life to help me recall his goodness and know that he is trustworthy.
Thank you Lord for loving me and wanting me to be a better man. Help me to react to Satan the way that Jesus. I want to long for the things that are important to you.
