I was reflecting on the Sunday Gospel, Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested. After forty days alone in the desert, he\u2019s hungry and physically exhausted. The devil appears and enters into a conversation with Jesus.
The devil is smart and slithers in to tempt Jesus to deny his true self with that familiar phrase of doubt; \u201cIf you are…\u201d The Devil confidently and persuasively quotes Hebrew Scripture to unnerve Jesus. He promises him power, wealth and influence. Jesus remains true to himself.
He won\u2019t be bought. He rejects the temptation and takes command: \u201cAway with you Satan!\u201d
The more I reflected on this dramatic scene the more I realised the scene is now. The smart and articulate voice of deception continues to slither in and cause doubt, uncertainly and confusion. The devil is cunning, baffling and powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Virginia Ryan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was reflecting on the Sunday Gospel, Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested. After forty days alone in the desert, he\u2019s hungry and physically exhausted. The devil appears and enters into a conversation with Jesus. The devil is smart and slithers in to tempt Jesus to deny […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[38,45,26,44,24,55,8,32,50,41,25,51,34,54,47,31,42,39,48,46,52,40,37,35,28,43,53,36,27,33,29],"class_list":["post-28678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bishop-david-walker","tag-ancient-wisdom","tag-contemplative-prayer","tag-enlightenment","tag-guided-meditation","tag-inner-peace","tag-introspection","tag-lectio-divina","tag-lectio-divina-for-beginners","tag-life-transformation","tag-meditation-guide","tag-meditation-mastery","tag-meditation-tips","tag-mindfulness","tag-mindfulness-meditation","tag-mindfulness-practices","tag-mindfulness-techniques","tag-personal-development","tag-reflect-and-transform","tag-reflective-living","tag-sacred-reading","tag-self-discovery","tag-self-help","tag-soulful-journey","tag-soulful-living","tag-spiritual-awakening","tag-spiritual-growth","tag-spiritual-guide","tag-spiritual-insights","tag-spiritual-practice","tag-spiritual-reflection","tag-transformative-journey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Smart.jpg",630,360,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Smart-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Smart-300x171.jpg",300,171,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Smart.jpg",630,360,false],"large":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Smart.jpg",630,360,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Smart.jpg",630,360,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Smart.jpg",630,360,false],"menu-24x24":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Smart-24x14.jpg",24,14,true],"menu-36x36":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Smart-36x21.jpg",36,21,true],"menu-48x48":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Smart-48x27.jpg",48,27,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Virginia Ryan","author_link":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/?author=2"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"I was reflecting on the Sunday Gospel, Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested. After forty days alone in the desert, he\u2019s hungry and physically exhausted. The devil appears and enters into a conversation with Jesus. The devil is smart and slithers in to tempt Jesus to deny…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28680,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28678\/revisions\/28680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}