Scripture Scribbles: March 06, 2022

the Gospel

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days,
and when they were over he was hungry.
The devil said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered him,
“It is written, One does not live on bread alone.”
Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him,
“I shall give to you all this power and glory;
for it has been handed over to me,
and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It is written
You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve.”
Then he led him to Jerusalem,
made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,
and:
With their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It also says,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
When the devil had finished every temptation,
he departed from him for a time.

the devotion

Two things strike my heart in hearing this today:

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.

and:

When the devil had finished every temptation,
he departed from him for a time.

The first because: As followers of the Lord, temptation is inevitable.
The second because: Will we withstand the temptation?

It is by saying yes to Christ that we become an even bigger target for the evil one. When we begin to live our lives as Christ asks us to, when we are open to the Holy Spirit in all things, when we begin to frequent the Sacraments, when we say yes to the unique callings that God has for our life, the evil one will try all he can to stop us. He will begin to work overtime to tempt us away from following Christ. He will put up roadblocks, make the journey hard. Sometimes, we feel as if we are walking in a desert. And we will be hungry. He will do anything to get us to fall into sin, to fall back into our old ways, and to turn away from the Lord.

I wonder, as you hear this today: What would the devil take you up to show you?

Power, wealth, popularity, a life of riches, an immaculate house, peer approval, a promotion at work, a luxurious vacation, Instagram followers?

He whispers: "All this will be yours, if you worship me."
How can we possibly withstand it?

Today, Jesus shows us today how to withstand it.
​​He uses the Word to fight back against the temptations of the evil one: ​"It is written."

​​​​Are we spending time each day in the Word? Do we take even just five quiet minutes a day to speak to the Lord in our hearts? To let Him speak to us? ​Do we visit Him in the Eucharist? Use the Sacrament of Confession to battle evil out of our lives?

​​Christ draws from His relationship with the Father to speak truth into the lies that the evil one is throwing in his face. Without the depth of this relationship, we will have nothing to fight off the temptations with.

As a Christian in this broken world, temptation is inevitable​. The question is: Are we equipping ourselves with the weapons to fight?​

Today’s devotion was written by Rachel Smith.