January 17, 2024 

Not By Bread Alone 

Chandra Betner-Gray 

Matthew 4:1-4-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. “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.’”[a]Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you ’and,‘ In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”[b] 7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”[c] 8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you,[d] Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”[e] 11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

I walked through Aldi yesterday evening with a made up mind, I was going to be victorious on this Daniel Fast. In that instant something good and sweet caught my eye. Something I have almost NEVER passed by. I won’t mention it for fear of tempting you, but I literally stood in the market for what seemed like an eternity and stared at the delicious dessert. I shook myself and laughingly said, “Man shall NOT live by bread alone.” I snapped out of the trance and walked on with a little giggle at the thought of me quoting scripture just to get down the aisle past my favorite dessert.

The whole ride home, I thought about the incident. Not the dessert, but the fact of, although I laughed, how significant the Word of God is in everyday life. Isn’t that what Jesus said to Satan in this passage? “…Not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” 

Although as Pastor once said, if you’re hearing audible voices, you may need a check-up; the inner man should be tuned in to hear from God’s mouth, that we can make it in this walk daily. Especially as we purpose our hearts for SO MUCH MORE in 2024. 

How do we hear the voice of God?

By purposing to hear from Him over the noisy racket of day to day life, the alarm going off in the morning, the shower water, the rushing to work or school, countless text messages and calendar alerts, church events, work meetings…stomach growls, and quiet ourselves long enough to hear. 

The world says, “meditate and find your center” but don’t be fooled by this cheap substitute. The answer is to humble ourselves and quiet our spirits in prayer, fasting, and allowing the Spirit of God to speak to us.

We must also, open the Bible and read what thus saith the Lord. This by far is one of the more difficult disciplines as believers. There seems to never be enough time to stop and read anything. This is why, we must be intentional, and when we fall off the wagon (which we will), get right back up, and back to the Word!

My prayer is that in these 21 days of fasting, we use our moments of physical hunger, frustration or discouragement, to push us closer to the Master; to find real life applications to the scriptures which we’ve heard and have read. Even if that means looking at a delectable snack in the grocery store and saying, “Satan get behind me!”; that we become armed with the Word of God to combat our human frailties, and the attack of the enemy, all while endowing us with supernatural strength to keep on going.