TRIALS: When the Serpents tempted Jesus to turn the stone to Bread
TRIALS: When the Serpents tempted Jesus to turn the stone to Bread
This is very famous scripture about Jesus coming out of his forty day fast and then the serpent confronts him with three tests
2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”
Now this is something that I have been dealing with in my own life. Now I have recently been on a fast and in the midst of the fast I have come to the realization. I have a REAL problem with snacking and Midnight snacking if you remember my article from over a month ago about comfort food I thought I had a issue with it but I realized how bad it was when I started to notice I was eating junk food Al the time.
Now under most circumstances I can walk away from it but the enemy test you subtly and without warning it’s as casual as a stroll.
Come on it’s popcorn it’s a healthy snack it’s not potato chips or cookie Oh it’s Characters at least t’s not chocolate chip cookies Oh it’s Cheetos you haven’t had those in a while it won’t harm you
And then you find yourself doing it every night, your excuse is your still hungry after dinner… you fasted all day you have the right to do that… or my favorite, I’m near my period Let me LIVE. (you know them period craving ain’t no joke) and your body is sneaky you say …I refuse to eat French fries so the body thinks “I’ll make her eat potato chips” You say “No” “I’ll make her eat has browns” You say “No” I’ll make her eat “chicken noodle Potato soup” You say “I’ll make the chicken noodle but no chicken no potato” It’s says what can I do… AHH there is some mashed potato in the cabinet, get her to season them up right” You say “hey I haven’t had those mash potato’s in months” “GOTCHA”
Then you eat mash potato’s with your dinner for a week and you feel horrible because you gave into it.
Same thing happens with bread, you don’t think about the fact that you eat bread as
Toast Sandwich Donuts & honey Buns Muffins Pancakes and waffles Dinner rolls Cornbread cake
All breads and I’m sure a lot of us eat one of those with every meal if not two, this is how our brain tricks us
And if your trying to cut out starch you might as well wave a white flag because EVERYTHING has starch or some form of sugars. I know because I fasted off sugar for 3 days several times and tasted sugar on PEANUTS.
And then the classic case of don’t have it but have all the ingredients to make it… that why that scripture is so meaningful. If you can cook and you are fasting or trying to discipline yourself off of something and you KNOW how to make that thing your mind tell you “just make it”
Turning the stone to bread = turning the ingredients to what your craving
Man shall not live on bread alone = the things your craving are likely, Bread or some sort of sugar.
But do we think about that No, most people think as fornication as a sin but what about what we are putting in our mouth remember Gluttony is a sin before god two and it’s one of the dealing ones and it runs RAMPID in the earth with the worlds Obesity problem, the walk of a Christian is different than the rest of the world… we have to do what god is telling us to do in order to sustain our bodies
Eating right exercising, not giving into every craving that you have when you know that it’s bad for you even though you ALWAYS use to do it, but does that sustain your regimen because if it’s not good for you, you shouldn’t be doing it.
Best way to tell if something is bad for you is if you reject doing it and you notice your flesh rising up against it, the more you try to resist it the harder it tries to make you hungry and crave that thing like if you don’t eat it you’ll die. Then you gotta just let it go.
Can you never eat these things… yes you can, you just have to train yourself to be disciple in the way you eat them. If you eat popcorn, eat one serving size once every two weeks. If you like hot chocolate you drink one cup once in a great while I haven’t had any hot chocolate in two months or more so I believe it’s safe for me to drink 1 cup if I don’t drink any more for a month or two. Eating eggs jelly with bread once a month or 6 weeks. But, not allowing yourself to eat that stuff daily, treat yourself but know your limits.
Same with meat, I love chicken but I know what it does to my system when I eat it if I eat it for one meal then I can be okay I can manage it but if I eat it for the next 15 meals I have a problem. You have to put yourself on a strict diet and some times that is hard because we are trained to have routine, even those that have pre-package dinners they give you a seven day week of food and every meal is the same thing all week unless you’re on weight watchers or something
We are trained to be in a routine and we need to be truly careful about how we dealing with our bodies and what we are putting in them breaking bad habits. Because sometimes you can get rid of all the unhealthy snakes and replace all of it with vegan but if you are still eating it like a glutton is that good for you.
So are you letting your fleshly serpent control your spirit Man?
