“It’s Just Bread”

This weekend we took our teens to a winter snow retreat. There were about 140 teens there for a 24 hour period and we had a great time of big games, singing and great preaching.

I wanted to share one point that the speaker made this weekend and some thoughts on how to apply that to our parenting and own life.

The speaker was describing temptation and how Satan tries to entangle us. In our minds, we think that Satan is the really bad guy with the horns and smoke and general aura of badness.  We think he is going to come in, guns blazing and tempt us with all the wickedness we can think of: drugs, s*x, p*rn, etc…

But, in the gospels, we see that this is not always the case.

In the gospel we read that Jesus was fasting and praying in the wilderness  and in comes Satan to tempt Him.

Dramatic, Enter Satan: He is all sneaky and sly…the deceiver…and we expect that he will pull out some wicked, abhorrent sin out of his bag of tricks to trip up the Son of God. But instead…

He tempted Jesus with….bread.

Plain simple bread.

In a nonchalant way, he probably sauntered over, hands in pockets, and said “Hey, if you’re hungry, why not turn those rocks into bread? You can get away with it.”

Bread was lawful. What’s the big deal?

But there is always more at stake than what I think.

With Adam, it was just fruit. —>What? Is it going to kill you to eat it?

With Abraham it was just a little lie.—> A white one, a half truth. She’s my sister.

With Moses, it was just an extra strike at a rock.—>My anger is no big deal.

With David, it was just a glance at Bathsheba. —>It’s just a look. Everyone looks.

With Lot’s wife, it was a just a glance.—> It won’t kill me to take a peek.

And with Jesus, it was bread.

If Jesus had eaten the bread, He would have sinned and never been our Savior.(the more at stake part.)

As mothers of teens, you know that they get the “What’s the big deal” attitude somewhere around 12 years old. They think that their particular sin is no biggie.

And truth be told, they get that attitude from their parents.

As women:

It’s just a little gossip. She is a miserable person anyway.She deserves it.

It’s just a little envy. I can dream about that house,can’t I?

It’s just a little gluttony. It won’t kill me to indulge just this once.

It’s just a little bossiness. Who does my husband think he is? Perfect? I’m doing what I want to do.

And we have fallen hook, line and sinker.

It is NEVER what it appears on the surface. There is always a bigger consequence.

God always sees. Joseph realized this when tempted by Potiphar’s wife. He asked “How can I do this thing in the sight of God?”

If we held on to the fact that God is always there, and train our children with that mindset, I think it would help them tremendously. The fear of the Lord is the beginning, the starting place of wisdom.

God knows, God sees and God DOES care about the little choices that we make every day. If they are sinful, you can be sure that there will be consequences. And when we buy into the lie that because I didn’t get punished today, that God has overlooked my sin and I have escaped punishment for them, we are seriously lacking wisdom.

I thought that that one principle alone was worth the whole trip and wanted to share it with you. I hope it helps you to decipher and see Satan’s lies for what they are.

When you sin, there are always, always strings attached with bigger consequences.