We all have a weakness for certain foods.  For example, I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds things that are chocolate simply irresistible.  (I have a particular fondness for chocolate chip cookies and peanut M & Ms.) Adam and Eve had a weakness for another kind of food: the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden of Eden--the fruit God specifically told them not to eat.

We all have a weakness for certain sins, too.  These are the sins to which we are most prone.  Some of us may be quick to judge others, some of us may think only of themselves, some of us may have little patience with children.  Try as we might, we can't seem to resist temptation; we know this behavior is wrong and we want to change it, but we find ourselves repeating it over and over again.

Let's take a look at one of the differences between Adam and Eve and the Lord Jesus.  All the time that the serpent was tempting the woman and the man in the garden, they never once appealed to their creator for help. Jesus' situation was entirely different.  Though as subject to temptation as any other human being, he stood spiritually fortified by forty days and nights of prayer and fasting.  God was for him a rock, a fortress, a shield--and Satan left, defeated.

I'm not suggesting we all spend forty days and nights praying and fasting in the desert.  But it is a mistake to think that we can overcome our sinful tendencies on our own.  Left to itself, our so-called will power is merely will weakness.  If we want to resist temptation, we have to rely on the power of God.

* see Matthew 4:1-11

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