12Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. 13And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.
The 40 days of Satan tempting Jesus makes me think of the 40 days of Lent every year before Easter. Oftentimes I think of Lent as a time to give up something. We usually try to think of something that would be good for us to give up. But in the end, to me, it starts to take on a similar connotation of a New Year's resolution, though I usually am more dedicated to any commitments I make for Lent than I am for those made for the New Year.
Because I tend to focus on something to give up that would be good for me, am I just replacing satisfying one temptation with another? For example, if I give up sweets or plan to exercise more, I have to deal with the temptation of eating or being lazy. But am I then mostly doing it to fulfill my temptation to lose weight or to get in better shape? It seems that Lent ought to be a time to deal directly with temptations. I'm not exactly sure how to do this without getting caught up in the other material/physical benefits of avoiding those temptations. I think that somehow my focus of Lent needs to be switched to turning to God for help with any temptations, studying his Word to help prepare me for what is ahead, asking God what He wants my spiritual journey to be, and trying to do what He asks of me.
The thing that strikes me about this passage is how in the previous passage the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and now, immediately, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. It seems that there may be times that when you let the Holy Spirit take an active part in your life, He knows and will guide you in what you must do. Sometimes that may take you to places you may rather not be, and just because you end up going through some struggles it does not mean that God is working against you. Even still, the angels ministered to Jesus. If we follow where the Holy Spirit guides us, God will watch over us and angels will minister us too.