"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." -Matthew 4:1-4 What an interesting scene! The originator of evil comes against the Son of God. Given the circumstances, it seems as if Jesus is at a disadvantage. He has gone without food for a total of forty days and He is hungry. I imagine that He is also feeling weak and hot since this event took place in the Middle Eastern wilderness. It is under these unfavorable circumstances that Satan decides to tempt the Son of God. Doesn't that tell us something about Satan? He likes to target us when we are at our weakest point. Yet, even though he may come with temptations at those times, we have access to the same power which helped Jesus overcome in spite of His weakness. That power is the word of God. Notice that the text brings out that Jesus says something in response to Satan's temptation. The text does not say that He pulled out a scroll and read to Satan, but rather that "he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."(Matthew 4:4) Does that not indicate that a useful tool in defending against the evil powers of darkness is having the word of God memorized? In case you are wondering, Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3. Another way in which Satan works can be seen in this passage. He came to Jesus and said "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread" (Matthew 4:3). It is important to note that the last two verses of Matthew chapter 3 come before the passage quoted in the first paragraph of this article. Those verses tell us that after Jesus was baptized, He came out of the water, and the heavens opened up, and while the Holy Spirit is descending upon Him, the Father's voice from heaven declares how He is well pleased with His Son Jesus(See Matthew 3:16-17). Therefore, we can conclude that one way Satan tries to get us to sin is by trying to present temptations that make us question God's word. He can come to us when we are feeling weak or despondent, and then he will try to make us think or act contrary to what God's word says. One way Satan does this is by making humans think that God's word, especially His promises about the terms of forgiveness, are too good to be true. In the case of Jesus, Satan was trying to make Jesus earn His title as the Son of God by doing something, (specifically working a miracle), rather than taking His Father's word about Him being His Son. Christians should take God at His word and rest upon His promises. I wonder how many times the devil has played that trick on us. Often times, we can sin and have feelings of condemnation, and even after we ask for forgiveness from God, we still feel condemned rather than believe God's promise that He is "faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). If Satan can make us use our feelings as an indicator of our standing before God, he has us duped in a sad situation. So what then, can we do if we find ourselves in this situation?

Instead of us trusting to a good feeling that we may experience within ourselves, we all can trust God's promises. Why can we trust God's promises? Well for one thing, the Bible tells us that God cannot lie. In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began(Titus 1:2). Another reason why we can trust what God says instead of our condemning feelings which Satan has put into our hearts is because the Bible calls the devil is a liar. Ye are of your father the devil... ...When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it(John 8:44). On top of all of this, God desires for all men to turn from their evil ways. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance"(2 Peter 3:9). God also wants all men to come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved(1 Timothy 2:4). It is God's desire for all men to repent and turn from doing evil because He does not want any of us to perish(Ezekiel 33:11). All of this is evidence that God loves every human being including you, reader. So next time when Satan comes to you while you are feeling condemned and tries telling you something like, "You are such a bad sinner", or "You fell into this sin for the tenth time... there is no way God will forgive you now" or, Do not even bother confessing your sins to God... you have been bothering Him so much over this issue", you can simply reply, "You are a liar Satan. God loves me so much that He wants me to be with Him in heaven forever, and these convictions of my own sinfulness are the result of Jesus working in my life. I will confess my sins, trust that He has forgiven and cleansed me, and will believe His Word like Jesus did despite my negative feelings because God does not lie." In conclusion, there are three main ideas which we can pull from Matthew 4:1-4. The first is we should memorize scripture as a tool against Satan's evil devices. It would be well to keep those promises concerning God's forgiveness fresh in your mind if you often find yourself feeling condemned. The second point is that Satan can and will tempt us at any time, especially when we are weak, whether it is physically or emotionally weak. The third one is that we can trust God's word in spite of our feelings or physical and emotional weaknesses because God does not lie and He desires us to go to heaven with Him. The way that He will accomplish the third point is through His Son Jesus, of whom the Scripture says God Himself has appointed to give people like me and you repentance so that we may have the capacity to be sorry for our sins to the point where we ask for forgiveness and through the grace of God commit them no more. "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins"(Acts 5:30-31). "But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance"(Matthew 9:13).