Soul Food Ministries

Please begin by reading Matthew 4:1-11 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided the text for you at the end of this reflection.

As we begin Lent, we often try to prepare ourselves in mind, body and spirit for the “Great Easter Event” by a period of physical and mental preparation. For some of us, this period is highlighted by fasting as a way of preparing the body, or in the giving up of a special treat as a way of showing our determination to steel ourselves for the five weeks before Easter and demonstrate our worthiness before God.

During this journey, we often experience temptation to break the fast or to take just a tiny bite of the treat we swore off during the beginning of Lent. Can we imagine the temptation to eat just one?

But we are always subjected to temptation, not just at this time of year, even in things or ways we don’t recognize. How many of us risk our bodily well being when we run the yellow light or when we refuse to rest when our body cries out that it is time to “chill out.” How often do we risk our integrity or our job through the telling of a white lie for convenience sake or take pens and pencils from work for use at home, often justifying theft by some excuse such as “they don’t pay me enough anyway.” For some the temptation takes on the form of abuse of substances, some legal such as pain pills and alcohol and cigarettes, and others not legal, such as cocaine or other illegal drugs.

One of the things we should be about this Lenten Season is reading scripture, engaging in daily prayer and meditation and looking inward at our weaknesses. As we address our shortcomings in the spiritual and mental approach, we can see a way to personal growth and the development of a new inner strength.

Our text offers us a model for making wiser choices in life and standing up to temptation that crosses our path. Jesus’ temptations were like ours, areas where all humans are vulnerable to compromise and the making of bad choices.

Like Jesus, we can with divine help overcome the temptation to trade integrity, honor and health for worldly goods and power and temporary satisfaction. In partnership with God, as Jesus was, we can have the strength to abstain from those activities which keep us enslaved and to be open to the leading and teaching of the Holy Spirit.

Each time we fall does not mean we are failures. We are not called to perfection, but to continue and through continuing to find through help from God our way along the spiritual journey to a place of mental, physical and spiritual well being. Each time we fail and then succeed, we grow and become more compassionate and better able to accept God’s forgiveness for us and in turn to forgive others.

In the end, instead of facing temptation and living in fear, we can come to understand what opportunity lies in facing the temptation and learn to live as we are intended, one day after the next, but each day in its turn.

The guest author of this week's Lenten reflection is the Rev. Gail S. Hicks. Gail uses the pen name "Maw Barker" because of her great love for dogs.

revclay

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”