When I went through a summer, training exercise at the United States Air Force Academy called Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) 25 years ago, it was a grueling, 6-week period with limited food. Part of the training was a week-long trek through the Rocky Mountains as if we were downed pilots behind enemy lines, armed with a compass, a parachute, a topographical map and two boxes of K-rations. We had to make checkpoints along the route, while trying to evade the captors. Full of false bravado, I gave away my K-rats and existed on what I could catch. I caught one squirrel, but mostly ate thistle, which tasted a lot like celery. Throughout the training, I lost almost 25 pounds. Unlike now, when I have some extra padding to lose, I already was lean at the time. To make matters worse, all we talked about on the trek was what we were going to eat when we got home. That craving for food controlled us. The first day back, I devoured an extra-large, deep dish pizza at Godfather’s, and the weight started to come back quickly!
Just as God is in three persons, He created us in three parts: body, soul and spirit. We know the most about the body, and frankly, focus mostly on the body. Our bodies crave food, and when we don’t eat as frequently as we are accustomed, our stomachs growl! We also crave liquid to drink, and can’t exist without it. Sex is another craving that takes over the lives of many. Tiger Woods could certainly tell you about how strong that desire can be. Our souls, on the other hand, are tied more to our brains and who we are as humans. Lastly, the spirit is the part of us that spiritually connects with God. The passage we discussed yesterday in 1 John refers to three specific temptations that Satan tries to trip us with. To remind you, those are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Not surprisingly, that was the same strategy that Satan attempted on Jesus:
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:1-4
That first attempt by Satan to trip up our Messiah was through the lust of the flesh. Personally, it is sometimes difficult for me to grasp God being hungry, yet when Jesus departed heaven for earth, He not only became a man, but also, took on the difficulties of the human body. One of those was the need for food and drink. As hungry and weak as Jesus had become in His fast, our Lord still did not give into the temptations of the wily one. Rather than satisfy an urge to keep His earthly body strong, Jesus made a decision to strengthen His spiritual connection with the Father. We can gratify the flesh, but we never can satisfy the desires of the flesh. Only God can satisfy, and though Satan attempts to fool us into believing that he can supply our needs, he can only supply our wants.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11
22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2 Timothy 2:22
As we age, most of us come to realize that what we once highlighted as a priority was not so important. Physical beauty is fleeting. Many desired to date the homecoming queen, but now we realize that the sweet, Christian girl who was interested and interesting would make a better lifetime partner.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
Romans 13:14
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