A Healthy Defense

Matthew 4:4 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.’”

When staying physically fit, an important part of our routine includes a healthy diet. I have seen many people go to extremes in their diets in order to maintain physical fitness. As Christians, we would make incredible gains, spiritually, if we took that much care to take in the Word of God. Athletes train rigorously to become the best at what they do, training their bodies, and being careful about how they nourish them. Our life, in Scripture, is called a race. Should we too not take care to exercise our faith, and include a healthy diet of God's Word. In Matthew, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, where He fasted for 40 days. At the end of that time, guess who shows up? Yes, you guessed it. Satan. He tried to tempt Jesus into turning a stone into bread to feed Himself. However, Jesus countered temptation with Scripture (Matthew 4:4). We too would have more success in not falling to temptation if we were disciplined enough to continually be in God's Word, reading it, studying it, and committing it to memory. There are many times in our life when we will find ourselves in a vulnerable state, be it from being physically tired, mentally drained, spiritually down, for a number of reasons. Those are the times when sin will tempt us most. Those are the times the enemy will tempt us most, because we are at our weakest. However, our strength lies in knowing the Word of God, and being obedient to it. What we forget is that the Holy Spirit is our strength during those times. How can He then wield His Sword, if we have not committed it to memory. What is there to draw from if the Word is not in our hearts? We must be diligent to keep the Word close at hand, in our hearts, and minds; for this is the best weapon we have to combat temptation, and be victorious over sin.