Sacred Sundays

I have started a challenge to study all I can about Jesus. Perhaps you would like to join me.?.?. All you do is read and ponder every reference to Jesus found in the topical guide of your scriptures. I suspect most of my posts on Sundays will relate to this study…but I could be wrong.
This week I have been pondering the ways in which Satan tempted the Savior. (Matthew 4: 1 – 11). If I had to summarize I would say he used three tactics… Fear…Power…and Doubt. I suspect we are all tempted to some degree or another in each of these three ways, but there is that one. The one temptation that is the greatest.
For me it is fear. Fear of going without. Fear of not measuring up. Fear of losing. Fear of getting hurt. When I am not mindful of this weakness, I set so many limits on myself and others.
If I look closely at my week, I see hints of that fear. Fear of being judged for my lack of mathematical understanding. Fear of not measuring up to my job title. And the farm? Well, in all my love for this farm life, there is a whole list of “what ifs” that are directly tied to my fears.
And so as I read in Matthew I took notice. I noticed that with each instance of temptation Jesus answers with scripture. “It is written…” I want to follow Jesus. Therefore, I will read and study and I will head into this new week with renewed courage and increased determination to seek the good…for, it is written:
Matthew 6
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.