Bread Doesn’t Have To Be A Weakness For Me

Since the start of this year (2019) I’ve been avidly avoiding gluten and dairy products and so far I’ve been successful.

I have an auto immune disorder (psoriasis) and I’ve discovered if I keep my distance from the two I can manage a little better. I’ve gone on these kicks before over the past couple of years where I give special attention to my diet and more often than not I’ve failed miserably…and I’m blaming bread!!!

Bread is my weakness! I mean who doesn’t love a loaf of homemade banana bread smothered in melted butter or a warm slice of garlic bread next to a plate of spaghetti (which I also bypass now due to gluten sensitivity)…

I’m a sucker for bread of all types.

Several years ago I was down in Mexico and had eaten days worth of Mexican food (which I love) but I was craving bread after a while. As it turned out our missions team headed out for a morning of shopping and happened to spot a bakery. I made a beeline straight for that store, probably even stopped traffic on the busy streets of Tijuana just to get there. I walked in and the smell about made me black-out. It was like Subway on steroids, it was glorious—dinner rolls, pastries, biscuits—sweet superfluous loaves of bread. I thought we’d stepped through the doors of Heaven.

I was sooooo completely amazed and overwhelmed that I walked out nearly twenty minutes later empty-handed!! I didn’t purchase a thing in that bread store and this was before I even knew gluten was a word! It was like too much of a good thing and I couldn’t make up my mind so I sporadically vacated, while the rest of my crew splurged. There was no reason I couldn’t have gone crazy and purchased one of every kind of bread in that bakery because at the time I wasn’t aware that bread affected my auto immune disorder.

These days though I’ve decided to be more conscious of my diet by totally eliminating certain foods in effort to make a healthier lifestyle. But I think back to that little bakery in Mexico every now and then and wonder how I’d hold up if faced with the temptation of my bread obsession and a store filled with baked goods situated on the other side of the road. Would I cross the busy street, feeding into that desire, burst through the doors, sniff around, and wipe out the shelves or simply and wisely recognize the temptation and keep my distance?

I’ve been using Luke 4 as an inspiration to steer clear of my “flour-y” nemesis. In this particular chapter Jesus faced temptation, interestingly enough it involved Satan, a stone, and none other than a loaf of bread!!!—so it really hits home for me.

Check it out: (Luke 4 summarized) The Holy Spirit had led Jesus into the wilderness where he would face temptation from Satan. Jesus ate nothing, but after 40 days he’d become very hungry and then the bad guy (Satan) shows up and says, “if you are the son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”

I’d have been like, “Yes please!! And while I’m at it I might as well whip up enough homemade strawberry jam to spread over each slice!!”

But Jesus (fully man, fully God) knows his hunger needs to run deeper than physical food and he responds by quoting scripture, ‘No! The scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’

The very scripture that Jesus referred to comes from Deuteronomy 8:3b ‘People do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.’

Jesus knew his satisfaction wasn’t in filling his tummy, but in fulfilling his soul by means of spiritual food through a committed and right-relationship with His Father’s will.

In each scenario as Satan continually tempted Jesus throughout Luke chapter 4 verses 1-13, Jesus struck Satan down by quoting scripture…

Oh how incredibly powerful is the word of God.

Finally in Luke 4:13 we read that the devil had finished tempting Jesus and left Him until the next opportunity came.

Until the next opportunity came…

For some it’ll be the temptation of a shopping spree when the money isn’t in the bank, others will struggle with lustful desires, some it’ll be alcohol tendency when the AA meetings fail to fill the void…and for myself the aroma of freshly baked bread.

Those temptations are always going to come and sometimes they’re a challenge to recognize but we must not be fooled by their existence. Temptations will for sure present themselves, not only in obvious ways but through deceit as well. We must ask ourselves is this the Holy Spirit leading me to do this or is this Satan’s way of throwing me off?

Know the difference: Satan will lead us astray from a godly perspective and goals, the Holy Spirit on the other hand will cause us to bring glory to God as we represent Him in our dealings by objecting to the defeat to temptation.

If we’re wise and self-controlled we’ll consider and model Jesus’ responses to Satan’s temptations in Luke 4. We’ll study scripture, fill up on the Holy word, and satisfy our longings with the Bread of Life (John 6) and reject Satan’s forceful attempts at throwing us off.

John 6:32-35  Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 

“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

What are some of your temptation-struggles or weaknesses?

How do you deal with temptation?