Matthew 4:2: “Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards, he was famished.” It was then that “the tempter came.”
What an understatement. When you haven’t eaten for almost six weeks, you’re not just famished, you’re dangerously weak. Your muscles and bones hurt. Your electrolyte levels are way off. You’re not able to think clearly.
You’re so hungry your eyes are practically rolling back inside your head.
And that is when Satan shows up. He doesn’t come right after Jesus is baptized, when the heavens open up, and the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus and rests on him and God says, audibly, so people hear it, “This is My Son, whom I love.” Instead, Satan waits until all that is a distant memory, so distant, that it seems like, “Did that really happen?” Satan comes on Day 40.
Have you ever had an amazing encounter with God, when everything seemed so clear, and so affirming, and you heard his voice – but later, you were in such desperate shape you could hardly remember any of it; in fact, you questioned it?
In the summer of 1998, I went to a Christian conference, and there, a woman I barely knew, prayed for me. She prayed the most astonishing prayer I have ever received. She said things in her prayer that revealed my inmost heart, things I had told no one, except God in prayer. And then she said that despite my not having gone to seminary, I would be released into pastoral ministry, which is virtually impossible to do in my tradition.
I walked away in a daze. I knew the heavens had opened up, the Holy Spirit had descended, and God had spoken.
Within that year, though, a great conflict erupted at our church, forcing the senior pastor to leave, and then my wife and I left. I spun down into a whirlpool of feeling wounded, bitter, angry, and alone. I could hardly remember that former prayer. What could it possibly mean now? It was a joke to think I would be a pastor. Who would want to be?
And in my vulnerable state, Satan came to me. I felt like I was standing on the edge of a black abyss, and I felt him tempt me: “Give up on church. They just hurt you.”
I came within inches of jumping, of giving up on every single church forever.
Satan comes on Day 40. He bides his time. He waits. He circles, like a mountain lion, looking for his moment. And only when we are desperate and vulnerable does he make his move.
He will come when you are lonely; you’re in a hotel room in a strange city, all alone. Or he will wait until you’re so busy and adrenaline-depleted, you don’t have time to be patient. Or the Devil will wait until you’re sick, or your child is sick, or you’re depressed. He comes on Day 40.
Since that’s true, what should you do?
Pray regularly, “Lord, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.”
For many years, I’ve prayed this prayer: “Lord, never place me in a role or responsibility that is more than I can handle spiritually.” I’ve seen people who, because they were gifted, became leaders, but they didn’t have enough character to handle that role and all the pressure that came with it. The results weren’t pretty. So I ask God to deliver me from any temptation to a position I can’t handle. It would be better to not have it than to have it and disgrace the Lord.
In God’s providence, my wife and I are now back at that church. She’s serving on staff. And I’m now ordained (just as that long-ago prayer said, without my having gone to seminary). There’s such joy in serving the Lord with these people.
And I would be enjoying none of that if I had given in when Satan came on Day 40.
