⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
⁸ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
¹² Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
                                                                                                -Luke 4
 
Three temptations. All three answered by Scripture that Jesus held in his heart. All three of his responses came from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, a part of Scripture that most of us who have read through the whole Bible have tried our best not to doze through.
 
The Scriptures were both the groundwork for Jesus’s complete devotion to his Father as well as the weapon of his warfare against the temptations of the evil one. The Scripture cut through the fog and brought clear-eyed determination to not fall into it. 
 
These particular passages were summary expressions of Jesus’s pre-decisions to follow God his Father no matter what.   They kept him going through the time of testing and helped him to get out of the starting blocks without stumbling.
 
Back on Monday we talked about making some pre-decisions to fend off temptation and finding Scripture to go with them. Today I want to close this week by encouraging you to give yourself an early Christmas present and put one of those passages into your head and heart.
 
Memorize it. Put it on post-it notes around your house, recite it in the car during your commute for a couple of days, get the kids to recite it with you to help you and to bring them into the value and wonder of having Scripture stored in your head and heart.
 
Jesus was glad to have the Scripture at his fingertips when he needed it.  You will be, too.
 
Pick one (short!) passage that is meaningful to you coming into the new year and might resonate with an area where you want to see change and start memorizing it today.