June 18
He Was in the Wilderness Before Me
In the Hour of Silence"The Tempter came to Him."—Matthew 4:3.
TEMPTATION is certain. If anyone will escape its onslaught and seduction and pain, it will be my Lord Jesus Christ; but even into His stainless heart the cunning and cruel foe dares to seek an entrance. Because my nature is human, because my world is what it is, because my adversary the devil haunts and dogs my steps, it is inevitable that I should be tempted.
And temptation is many-sided. Out in the wilderness it assailed Jesus in His body and in His soul and in His spirit. It appealed to His physical hunger, and to His longing to have the whole round earth for His own, and to His perfect and unquestioning trust in His Heavenly Father. It has as many channels and avenues by which it approaches me. In secret and in public it comes to me, in the world and in the Church, from my opponents and from my friends as well.
But temptation may be very blessed. It was so to my Lord, and it may be so to me. It is sent to reveal to me of what spirit I am, and to make stronger and simpler my confidence and hope in God, and to prove to me the value of the sword of the Word, and to give me new assurances of the strength of prayer. It is not a hostile but a friendly force, not an antagonist but an ally. It should leave me wiser and holier than I was.
And, when the conflict is over, God's angels will come and minister to me. Indeed they have been with me all the time, nearer than the wild beasts of the desert-place, closer than the prince of hell in his strong mail of craft and power. But, now that the fight is ended, I shall taste the comforting gentleness and strong sustenance of their society.