A Moment of Weakness

Copyright © 2004 by Mary Lynn Mercer

Lettuce. Broccoli. Cabbage. Tomatoes. Spinach. Turnips. Carrots. Apples...

She checked off the last item on the list and looked down with a weary sigh into her grocery cart, brimming with fresh produce. There wasn't a single item that didn't require serious chewing in raw form. She was nearing the end of a forty-day diet to lose ten pounds, and couldn't remember the last time she'd tasted anything cooked.

But, the diet was working. Only one week and two pounds to go before she could fit into that new size twelve cashmere-wool pants suit hanging in the closet. Her version of a blue ribbon.

She pushed the cart around the corner of the aisle, and inhaled the aroma of buttery, golden crust. Her mouth started to water. She swallowed convulsively. The produce section emptied directly into the bakery department. Uh-oh, the gauntlet. She tugged backwards on the cart, planning to avoid it by going the long way around, against-traffic past the open meat freezers, on her way to the checkout area.

The grocery cart heaved an inch in reverse, then refused to budge. Were the wheels stuck, or was she truly weak from hunger?

No. She'd run the gauntlet before, and she could do it again. Tightening her grip on the cart to shove it forward, she sucked in a deep breath. Big mistake. Now she could definitely identify the aroma of lemon cream filling, too.

Nearing the end of the bakery aisle, she saw the first checkout lane come into view. She was almost safe! She swung the cart wide to clear a table display, and felt herself slow instinctively to read the red lettering on the sign. Free sample. New item. Irresistible.

Her gaze enveloped the slices of strawberry cake, oozing with glazed strawberries and snowy whipped cream, on party-colored paper plates. A stab of pure lust pierced her apatite with paralyzing speed. One little bite couldn't hurt. The slices weren't that thick. After all, she'd lost eight pounds. She deserved a reward.

She picked up a plastic fork and cut into the cake. It felt light and fluffy, and she imagined its creamy sweetness melting on her tongue.

A hand touched her shoulder. "Do you want me to be strong for you?" She recognized her best friend's voice, completely devoid of condemnation.

The shock of instant guilt hit her. But her taste buds still responded to the cake's siren call. She couldn't fight it. Her only remaining choice was clear. She could cast her diet to the wind, which would require no effort at all--or turn to her friend for help and watch in inward agony the fork removed from her hand and her friend steer her compassionately toward the shortest checkout lane.

"Help!"

If only temptations assaulted us when we felt strongest and most capable of resisting them! But Satan seldom tempts us when we're strong. He tempts us when we're weak, and in the area where we feel lack most acutely.

When Jesus' ministry was launched with his baptism at the Jordan River, it was with great power. He had the support of his cousin, John. The Holy Spirit manifested. God spoke from heaven.

But forty days later, the situation seemed drastically different. He was alone. He was in a desert. He was hungry. It was a rational sensation, hardly anything sinful, since he hadn't eaten in all that time.

That's when Satan paid him a visit. "Command that these stones be made bread." (Matthew 4:3)

Why the sudden concern for Jesus' health and comfort? If Jesus were really about to starve, wouldn't it have behooved Satan to let him?

Often the temptations that rise up in an area of personal weakness have very little genuine relevance to the situation we're facing. Food and hunger were only surface issues, negligible in their eternal impact. At the foundation level of Satan's temptation was the issue of trust. Would Jesus trust God his Creator to sustain his body without food? Or would he do something in his own power to save his life?

Jesus applied the answer that Paul later expounded on in Second Corinthians 12:9-10. "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."

As the Son of Man, Jesus refused to answer his need out of his own strength, and he refused to answer Satan out of his own wisdom. "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works... and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." (John 14:10, 24)

When temptation arises in a moment of weakness, don't rely on your own strength to meet it. There is a Friend Who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24), ready to supply His strength to overcome it. All you have to do is ask Him.