But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” – Matthew 4:4 NKJV
The trouble with most temptations is that they may seem harmless or even good for us. After all, what’s wrong with turning a stone into bread when you have gone without food and drink for 40 days? If you have the means to satisfy your hunger, wouldn’t you use them? Jesus could have easily turned that stone into bread and eaten it to regain His strength. If we were in His shoes, we would have done the same thing.
The problem is that Jesus would have acted independently of His Father. He would have put self before God and jeopardized the ministry He was to begin. If He had gone ahead and turned the stone into bread, how could He later declare, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38)? Would it have been His Father’ will for Him to heed the voice of the tempter instead of obeying His Word?
As Jesus pointed out, it is God’s Word that we ought to live by and to obey at all costs. We obey God’s Word in all circumstances. It is God’s Word which protects and sustains us. We should never put appetite, ambition, self, relationships or anything before God and His Word. As children of God, we should always seek to do not our own will but His will.
Like, Jesus, whenever we are faced with temptation, we ought to always apply God’s Word and make it our daily bread.
Notes to Women 