I’m really loving this series we’re in right now about the power of our words, because in the season I’ve been walking through, the Lord has been highlighting more and more just how important what I’m speaking really is.
And I don’t mean every now and then.
I mean daily.
Because what comes out of our mouth usually started somewhere else first.
It started in our thoughts.
It started in what we’ve been meditating on.
What we’ve been replaying.
What we’ve been believing.
What we’ve been letting sit in our mind long enough to eventually make its way into our words.
Because that’s how it works, right?
Words don’t just appear out of nowhere like surprise party guests. They form somewhere first. They form out of our thought life. Out of our perspective. Out of our circumstances. Out of discouragement. Out of disappointment. Out of fear. Out of whatever story has been sitting in the driver’s seat of our mind.
And as I’ve been walking through a season that I truly cannot wait to share more with you about — and I’m fully believing that later this year I’ll get to tell you all the crazy, beautiful things God has done — I’ve found myself more aware than ever of what I’m saying.
Or maybe I should say it this way…
I’ve become more aware of what I’m agreeing with.
Because when you’re in a challenging season, it can feel so natural to just speak what you see.
Speak what hurts.
Speak what’s taking too long.
Speak what looks impossible.
Speak what your emotions are screaming.
And trust me, sometimes it feels a little odd to be walking through something hard and not just say exactly what the season looks like. To not let your mouth follow your panic. To not let your words mirror your pressure. To instead stop and speak what God says — even while the scene in front of you looks like it’s telling a completely different story.
Whew.
That’s why I want to take us to Matthew 4 today.
Because what Jesus does in the wilderness is such a key for us when life is loud, when the pressure is real, and when the circumstances in front of us are trying to tell us what to think, what to believe, and what to say.
So just picture the scene with me for a minute.
Jesus has just been baptized. Heaven has opened. The Spirit of God has descended like a dove. And the Father has just spoken over Him:
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
What a moment.
What a holy, beautiful, affirming moment.
And then… the wilderness.
A real wilderness.
Dry.
Silent.
Empty.
Harsh.
Just Jesus.
The desert.
Hunger.
Silence.
And the enemy waiting for the right moment to start talking.
Now that’ll preach.
Because isn’t that often how it feels?
You can have a beautiful God moment… a clear word… a deep time with the Lord… and then suddenly find yourself in a place that feels dry, stretched, quiet, and confusing.
And it’s often there — not in the loud public places, but in the lonely, empty-feeling ones — that the wrong voice starts trying to narrate the story.
That’s where the enemy came to Jesus.
And what he came after first was not Jesus’ strength.
It was His identity.
“If You are the Son of God…”
Did you catch that?
The Father had just said, “This is my beloved Son.”
And the enemy comes in with, “If You are…”
Isn’t that just like the enemy…..?
God says one thing.
The enemy immediately tries to question it.
God speaks identity.
The enemy speaks doubt.
God speaks truth.
The enemy tries to get you to question it.
And right there, Jesus shows us something we desperately need to learn:
He does not sit there and entertain the wrong voice.
He answers it.
With the Word.
“It is written…”
That right there is the key.
Not panic.
Not spiraling.
Not emotional chaos.
Not trying to prove Himself.
Just truth.
Jesus answered the wrong voice with the right Word.
And friend, that is exactly what we have to learn how to do.
Because the enemy still works the same way.
He still comes after identity.
He still comes after trust.
He still comes after God’s timing.
He still comes after what God has spoken.
And when life feels dry or difficult or stretched, he loves to whisper a false narrative and hope we’ll start repeating it for him.
But Jesus shows us a better way.
You may not be able to stop every thought from knocking on the door of your mind — but you do not have to let every thought move in, unpack its bags, and start redecorating the place.
You can answer back.
That’s what makes this story so powerful.
Jesus didn’t just show us that the enemy speaks.
He showed us what to do when the wrong voice starts talking.
He answered it.
Not with panic.
Not with frustration.
Not with, “Why is this happening to Me?”
Not with a pity party in the desert.
He answered it with truth.
Three times the enemy came at Him, and three times Jesus answered the same way:
“It is written.”
That matters.
He was not letting the wilderness tell Him who He was.
He was not letting hunger tell Him what to do.
He was not letting pressure narrate the story.
He answered with what His Father had already said.
And friend… that is the key.
Because when life gets hard, the temptation is to start speaking from the pressure.
To start talking from the worry.
To let the circumstance write the script.
But Jesus shows us a better way.
You do not speak from the wilderness.
You speak from the Word.
Whew. That’s so good!
And here is what I love:
Jesus was in a real wilderness….He was really hungry and the pressure was real. But guess what was MORE REAL?
THE WORD OF GOD!
And that’s what the Lord has been pressing on me in this season.
Not just, “Watch your words.”
But deeper than that:
Speak God’s promise into your situation and watch what starts to shift.
Because when we begin speaking what God says instead of only what the season looks like, something changes.
When we speak His truth into the middle of pressure…
when we speak His promise into the middle of uncertainty…
when we speak Jesus into our everyday life…
something is bound to happen.
Why?
Because His Word is alive.
His truth carries weight.
And His presence has a way of changing the atmosphere.
So no, this is not about pretending the wilderness isn’t real.
It’s about remembering that God’s Word is more real than anything trying to talk louder than Him.
And my friend, when that becomes the place you speak from, everything begins to change.