How To Break Temptation's Power

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:1-4

It is important to notice that as our Lord meets these temptations, each time he used the same weapon. It is the same weapon available to us all. He retreated immediately behind the Word of God. He didn't argue or debate. He took refuge in the Word, in utter dependence upon the fact that God had spoken. The minute he did so, the battle ceased. The moment Satan was confronted with the Word of God and saw Jesus was taking refuge in it, there was no longer any struggle.

This is very important. Our continuing struggle comes because we are so reluctant to take our stand on God's revelation. We feel the force of the devil's alluring lie that we will gain something by this action or thought or attitude that is tempting us. We think if we don't do this thing, life is going to pass us by — we're going to lose something. And if we do it, we will gain a hidden kingdom which will be a satisfying and blessed experience. That is the force of the temptation. But when we retreat to what God says is the truth about it, then we discover immediately the end of the struggle. When it looks as though we are going to gain by disobeying, our one retreat must always be into the Word of God, for here is the revelation of things as they really are. This is the way to confront temptation, not with our weak, failing humanity, but with the power of the Word of God himself. When Satan finds himself up against that, he turns tail and runs.

I have a sign hanging on the wall in my study, capturing three truths that oftentimes have been a source of deliverance for me in times of temptations. The first of the three: It is written. Proof enough. God has told us the facts about life. The second: It is finished. Provision enough. On the cross, the Lord Jesus has done all that needs to be done to break the power of temptation in our lives. The third: It is I. Presence enough. His indwelling life within us is constantly available to us in order to break temptation's power.

This is a radical, revolutionary thing. There are few who seem to step out into this kind of living, but wherever it is attempted, strange things begin to happen. Not that the life suddenly becomes spectacular and people go around doing miracles; but in the quiet, daily experience of life, there is a quiet trust in the wisdom of God to meet each decision, and things begin to work out in unexpected ways, with unusual results that follow usual decisions. Extraordinary things follow ordinary activity, as God begins to work in human life. This is the secret of human life, as our Lord is demonstrating it, making it available to us as we by faith receive Jesus Christ, that his life may be lived again in us.

Father here in your book you have set forth the facts about life, things as they really are. Deliver me from the shimmering illusions and fantasies, the phoniness and emptiness of the devil's lies. Amen.