Still a bit of the devil in me!

While I was at spiritual retreat, I was introduced to the presenter Father Thomas Keeting.

"How are you, Father?"

He replied, "There is still a bit of the devil in me!"

It sounds funny but it expresses a truth about all of us, "there is still a bit of the devil in us" because we have not yet overcome sin. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert overcoming the devil and Lent is a time for us to get rid of whatever bit of the devil remains in us by overcoming sin in our lives.

Lent is a time when we reflect on the passion and death of Jesus so that by remembering we may overcome sin and when we celebrate the central belief of our faith -- the resurrection of Jesus during the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night -- we will have died to sin and risen to new life with Jesus. Just as Jesus overcame Satan during the 40 days in the desert we want to overcome Satan in our lives.

Whenever we sin, we have forgotten who we are and what God has done for us. Remembering who we are and what God has done for us helps us to keep away from sin. We overcome Satan by putting God first in our lives in every way. The three quotations from Deuteronomy that Jesus used when talking with Satan in the Gospel of Matthew remind us of putting God first in everything.

"One does not live by bread alone." The full quotation is "... not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord."

"You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve."

"You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test."

When we live from the bread of the world by not putting God first we sin and can never hope to be happy because sin always leaves us guilty. Sin brings us fear, despair, depressing news, discontent, anger and worry, negative thinking, bitterness, words that wound.

The words of the monk to me are unfortunately true of all of us, there is still a bit of the devil in us. During Lent we remember Jesus in the desert overcoming Satan and sin so that we, too, can die to sin and be risen to new life with Jesus

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Editor's note: The Rev. Dr. Scott Stewart is the pastor of Pea Ridge United Methodist Church and Brightwater Methodist Church. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted at [email protected] or 479-659-9519.