Psalm 91:9-16, Romans 10:8b-13 and Luke 4:1-13.

Jesus being tempted in the wilderness is a familiar Bible story. Our Lord seems very human, like us, if he was susceptible to reach for power over things and conditions of the earth! Who wouldn’t like the power to be protected from harm and the power to always have what you need?! And in such a distracted state of mind and body: hungry, alone, and pondering “what next!”. But Jesus was single minded in that he was in the wilderness to worship God alone.

Worship is the thing that mattered most. Devotion to the Source of all that exists! All else would then follow from that devotion. And Jesus was so “close” to God that it was clear the Devil knew Jesus had access to all power to meet his needs and to command the universe to obey Him.

In our wilderness times we do have needs but don’t always have the power to meet or overcome the needs. What do we do and to what do we aspire to use to get what we need? Is true worship and devotion all we ultimately need?

We will look in a bit closer to Jesus in the wilderness and to Paul who declares what we really need on this first Sunday in Lent, that Forty Days leading to Easter the fulfillment of all God’s intentions for us! “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” Romans 8:13.

Be there! Don’t be “tempted” to stay away!

Blessings for the Lenten journey!

Pastor Barry