Jesus answered, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4: 4
(Some of my thoughts for my blog today are pinched from the sermon I heard this morning...)
Jesus' temptation to turn the stones around him into bread to satisfy his hunger could be translated in our lives into any time that we are tempted to turn something/someone into something/someone it is not in order to satisfy a bodily need. It might be the temptation to eat too much to comfort oneself, to see someone else as a sexual object, to buy too many clothes in order to feel beautiful, to drink too much alcohol to dull pain or boredom, to hoard money in order to feel safe, to become addicted to social media sites to ignore feelings of loneliness.
Possessions, and having relationships and friends can be special, life-giving, joy-bringing things. When we twist and manipulate them, however, to fit into the spaces within us that need filling, we lessen both those things and ourselves.
Jesus answered that we should live, "by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
I don't yet really know how to live this way, but as I've said, I haven't really tried properly. It is all very well to speak of reliance on God, but what does that actually mean for my life when it comes to bodily needs?
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