We are human.

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Colossians 3:12 KJV

Today I begin by recalling a powerful statement of the past sermon from Sabbath. " Physical life is not as important as the relationship with God".
According to the story of the fasting of Jesus (Matthew 4:1 - 11), He was tempted of the devil.  The temptation came in a strange place - a place where life is usually difficult to find, a place where there seem to be nothing but yourself, a place where the hustle and bustle of life is rear.   Temptation is a part of being human, if you are robot then you are excluded. Additionally most of our temptation comes from within, based on what we feed to our minds. The devil focuses his temptation largely to increase our reliance on "self", he know that no one of himself can resist temptation.

The Bible tell that Jesus was in the desert, very far away from the city life, from the parties, business ventures, the restaurants, family and friends. He was a human being by himself in a state of hunger. We often find ourselves tempted by the lust of the flash and the pride of life (1 John 2:16), but Jesus was far away from all these elements, yet he was tempted.

Temptations will come to you like them or not, because you are alive and you are a human being. It does not matter as to the forms of temptation, they will just appear. So to was Jesus, he was human and the temptation came to him in that place, and at that time. If you are going through a world ( time and place) of trying times, reflect on this point in Jesus life. Hungry after 40 days of fasting, alone in the desert ( no one to see him) and now he is tempted. We all find ourselves in such position in life, desolate and some time alone, with no one watching and no solutions, at least this is how we feel. 

Temptation often comes from within, we foster the environment by the way we think and the food that feeds the mind. You are what you think, is very true of each human. We who learn to feed our minds with the things that of a good report ( Philippians 4:8) creates the environment for dealing with temptations. If we look deeply into the story of Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus was equip with responses from the Word of God in the points of his temptations. 

The responses of Jesus highlight the importance of dealing with temptations, and at the same time open discourse into the method and intentions of the devil regarding the temptation activities. Many time we may say we need to fight the temptation.We may say we need to struggle and overcome this one, but this may be exactly what the devil is seeking. Deeper study into the way Jesus respond to the temptation show clearly that he never relied on self. His responses came from the Words of God " It is written". How many time do we find ourselves saying it is written - "Thou shalt have no other God's before me".  Quite often we do the opposite, we sit and rely on self, not realising that while it may seem that we are "STRONG" to resist the temptation, we lose because we begin to forsake Our Source of resistance at our own peril.

In conclusion, we all will be tempted while we are alive and are human. We will not always be tempted based on what we see, touch or taste, but it may come from within our own thoughts. However, Jesus clearly demonstrates that victory over Satan and sin and temptations, comes from God. Let us all learn to say "It is written" and " Get thee behind me Satan". For it is only when we submit to God, then we can resist the devil and he will flee ( James 4:7)