I think it could be said that we could live our whole lives completely carefree if all we knew and believed in the Bible was the first line of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.”
If we ever do, why does it take a whole lifetime to enter into the perfect peace of that one statement? Perhaps it’s because temptation has such a subtle and deceptive way with us.
Every temptation is first of all an attack on God and the all-sufficiency of his love for us. It suggests that God is not enough, that his care is insufficient, that he cannot satisfactorily answer the need we feel or the desire we have. Temptation looks to have us substitute ourselves in for God and says, “you need to take care of this. You need to respond to this need. You need to act on that desire right now, and here’s how.”
Every temptation also wants to make life all about us. Temptation says it’s what you think, how you’re feeling, what you desire — that’s what’s all important.
But we’ve been given an answer for all that nonsense: The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.
