Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Matthew 4:2, “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.”

Background

Sometimes it doesn’t take many words to make you scratch your head and wonder. Do you remember the musical group, Was (Not Was)? They had some success in the 80s with an unusual blend of styles, lyrics, instrumentations, and guest performers. But even before you heard their music, which could border on the unbearable, hearing their name was reason enough to wonder. Three short words that make no sense together told you a little bit about the group and possibly how far out in left field they might be coming from. Certainly an ordinary sentence that included the phrase, “was, not was” would be difficult for us to get our minds around. And that’s sort of how I look at the end of Jesus’ fast in the wilderness. After He had eaten nothing for forty days and nights, He was hungry. If I translate that into our world today, it might read, “After skipping one meal, we were starving.” If nothing else, we are certainly in tune with our eating patterns and our bodies’ craving for food. So it’s practically impossible to comprehend that Jesus might not have been hungry until the last day.

Application

But could that be the case? Perhaps, but does it really matter when He got hungry? Does it matter whether one person can skip meals with ease while someone else may envision fasting as impossible as holding their breath for forty days? And as we deal with the people around us, we should have this same sense of allowance for the ways they might do things. Everyone has walked their miles in their own shoes. I should not expect others to see things the way I see them, and I should not elevate my personal preferences above another’s. Even the gospel writers described Jesus’ time in the wilderness differently. Is God better in one version than the others? We spend a lot of time and effort trying to do what’s good and right, and so we should. But let’s not use even more time judging or devaluing how someone else does it. Their forty days may be your forty minutes. Just focus on keeping your aim on the One who made it through the wilderness so that you could make it, too.

Charge

As we seek Him today, thank God for the way you are and the way others are, too. Ask Him to show you what needs to change in your heart rather than in someone else’s.

Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words