1. In the beginning of chapter 4, Jesus goes into the wilderness where he is tempted by the devil. In fact the exact phrase is, "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."(Mat 4:1). The question that popped into my mind while reading this was, why would the Spirit purposefully lead Jesus into temptation? Why go running towards trouble? Lucky for me I have a sweet study Bible that enlightened me on this topic. By confronting and prevailing against Satan in the desert, Jesus showed us that temptation does NOT need to end in failure. This is SO encouraging. Jesus was face to face with the devil and able to resist temptation. Whatever the devil throws at us, it does not need to completely unravel us. Just like Jesus, our Savior, we are completely capable of resisting any temptation with the Lord's help. Pretty cool, huh?
2. Jesus is a pretty poetic guy. I know this may sound superficial, but I couldn't help but think about it while I was reading. Every word he spoke had purpose and thought behind it. Some of his phrases and metaphors are absolutely beautiful. The phrase that really stuck with me while reading was when Jesus was speaking to Peter and Andrew(two fishermen) and he said, "come follow me and I will make you the fishers of men"(Mat 4:19). I just absolutely love that sentence. I mean, how much better can you get?
3. Moderately related to #1, but while in the desert how Jesus fight off the devil and his temptation? The answer is scripture. Scripture, scripture, scripture. Knowing verses is scripture is so so important. Unfortunately, memorizing Bible verses is something I'm absolutely terrible at and I really need to make a conscious effort to get better at it.
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