Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the River Jordan and was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  Jesus fasted and prayed, and ate no food for forty days and afterwards He was hungry and weak.  And then the devil came and tempted Him.

Do you know what it means to be tempted?  It means wanting or being asked to do things which we know are bad and wrong.

The devil came to Him and said, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  He tried to tempt Jesus to take matters into His own hands, rather than trust His Father, God.  But, Jesus answered, "It is written, 'Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Jesus was hungry from going without food for forty days.  Satan suggested that He use His power to turn stones into bread.  If the Jesus had done so, He would have been using His powers for His own good.  But, Jesus was set on doing His Father's will, and so He refused.

Then the devil took Him to Jerusalem to stand on the highest point of the temple.  "If you are the Son of God," he said, "Throw yourself down.  For it is written, 'He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.'"  But, Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

Lastly, the devil took Him up into a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour.  "All this I will give you," he said, "If you will bow down and worship me."  Jesus answered him, "Get away from Me, Satan!  For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'"  Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended to Him.

Jesus knew that it was wrong for Him to use the power of God to make bread out of stones in order to satisfy His hunger.  Why did Jesus know that this was wrong?  Well, the power of God was upon Jesus to enable Him to do wonderful things for other people, but it would have been wrong for Him to use that power for Himself.  This is a lesson which all boys and girls need to learn, that we must obey God's Word always!

Jesus never sinned or did anything wrong, not even when the devil tempted Him.  He could have avoided the cross, but that would have gone against God's plan for Him to give His life on the cross, to die and be buried, and then to be raised from the dead, and to sit at the Father's right hand in His Heaven.  Thank God, that Jesus always obeyed and pleased God in all He did and said!

Just think of all the wonderful things God has promised to do for us!  We want to be like Jesus, don't we?  Yes, and to do that we have to say, "No!" to temptations to do wrong and disobey God.  That's why we need to learn and memorise Scripture so that we can know how to answer and act when the devil tempts us to do wrong.

God bless!