Spiritual Priorities

During His temptation in the wilderness, Jesus, being God, could have said, “Satan, be banished!” and Satan would have left. Jesus had that authority and power over the Devil. But He didn’t do this.

Instead, when the Devil came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread” (Matthew 4:3 nlt), Jesus quoted Scripture.

He said, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (verse 4 nlt). Here’s the essence of what Satan was saying to Jesus: put the physical before the spiritual.

We face this temptation all the time. The Devil will come to us and whisper, “Hey, you need to have a little fun. You know you can play now and pay later. Don’t worry about the repercussions. God’s okay with this. You’ll be okay. You can trust me.”

Yet the Bible tells us that the Devil is a liar and the father of lies (see John 8:44).

Sometimes people get their lives out of whack by putting physical things before spiritual things. They become obsessed, and they let things become more important to them than God.

It’s great to have a relationship, but don’t put a relationship above God. And it’s fine to have a career, but don’t put your career above God. So by saying, “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God,” Jesus was simply pointing out that we should have our spiritual priorities in order. He was saying that we need to put God first.

So put God in His rightful place in your life. And when the Devil comes to you with a temptation, quote the Word of God.