When Jesus, full of Spirit, came into the lonely wilderness,
He faced a tempter bound to foil his earthly work and true witness.
Not pains of hunger, fame nor power would sway our Christ from standing fast.
Our Jesus, filled with Spirit, showed how we should follow to the last.
When filled with Spirit, Christians need not strain for power or for fear,
For God alone is all our power and God will lead us to draw near.
When filled with Spirit, Christians need not put our God unto the test;
We turn to God not for display, we turn for sustenance and rest.
When filled with Spirit, Christians need not seek out stones to turn to bread.
So many suffer hungry want, but our work is to share instead;
To lay aside our selfish pride and live so no one else has need,
To end the hoarding plunder wrought by raw, unyielding, selfish greed.
See how each testing faced by Christ points deep into our daily life:
When we give in to tempter's wiles, we fill our world with pain and strife.
But filled with Spirit we will live upon the words of God alone
Till all our hearts dwell in God's love with all temptation finally gone.
TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2025, after Luke 4:1-13.
MUSIC: Tune YE BANKS AND BRAES, Scottish melody.
Somehow I had written two different texts on Matthew's temptation account, but never either the Mark or Luke stories. In this case the emphasis will fall on how those temptations Jesus faced play out in our own lives and what guidance we might draw from the experience.
