I was almost tempted to title this entry "How Can A Young Man Keep His Way Pure? -Part 2"
BUT! Since Jesus' application of what I talked about last time is the focus - namely his triumph over temptation in the wilderness after his water baptism - we will just roll with that!
King David had some practical words for us which we looked at already...
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
(Psalm 119:9 ESV)
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
(Psalm 119:11 ESV)
...So what does that actually look like in practice? We can turn to Jesus - our ultimate example in the faith, and in living a life empowered by the Spirit and pleasing to the Father! The gospel writers record for us Jesus' temptation in order for us to see the reality that "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."(Hebrews 4:15 ESV)
And in walks Jesus. He gets baptized. God the Father is pleased with him, though Jesus had done no miracles yet, not an ounce of ministry. The Holy Spirit rests upon him. And he is commissioned for ministry and led into the wilderness to be tempted.
Satan himself is now tempting Jesus, and how does our Lord respond? You know it! With the Word of God. Jesus demonstrates to us: 1- His understanding and application of the above verses from Psalms, and 2- The importance of scripture in spiritual warfare and in triumphing over sin.
We CAN have victory over sin and walk in obedience to our God. Jesus did it. So can we! But knowing scriptures is KEY. It is sad that we can memorize song lyrics, score boards and a profusion of stats but then complain about how difficult the scriptures are to remember. In my next blog entry I will share some of my favorite Bible memorization methods that have worked for me, as well as my favorite scriptures that I think we should all know by heart. Thanks for reading, I hope you have spent more time in the Word today than on my blog. If not then go do it now while you're online here :)
