Optimist’s Roundtable

By Martha Sykes

Immediately, after Jesus was baptized, He was led the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, where for forty days, He was tempted by the devil. We can wonder why Jesus was driven out in the wilderness before He began His formal ministry.

Maybe it was so that He could fully experience what it means to be a human being.

The Holy Spirit sent Jesus out in the wilderness for a time of solitude, prayer, fasting, and preparation. This story is found in Luke, chapter 4 where it recounts for us, Jesus’s encounter with the devil, the temptations He faced and His triumph over them.

We all know the devil is very busy these days; the evil in our wild, the division in society, and sometimes even in the doubts we face. Like Jesus, we all face temptations that try to drive us away from our faith.

Like everything else Jesus faced in His journey, He always turned to prayer. When He taught His disciples how to pray , He said, “ Pray that you may not ever enter into temptation”. God is the One who can help us in our time of need or when we are tempted to lose our faith. In this passage we realize that Jesus also had to battle temptation. His prayer was that His Father would give Him the strength and power to overcome that evil.

Martin Luther told his followers that he also knew temptation, but the difference was,he said, “When temptation comes knocking on the door of my heart, I always answer; Go away, this place is occupied. Go back where you came from! Christ is here!!”

Lent is the time for us to give the devil that message!!