Spiritual Attack: Are you hungry?

When ever you give up things to seek after the Lord, (be it fasting, relationships, finances, ect) Satan will come in and try to fill that space. We see that in Matthew 4 with Temptation of Jesus.

And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."

Satan didn't come at the beggining of the fast, he waited until Jesus was hungry. Satan comes when you are longing for something, and tries to get you to fill that space with something other than the Lord. I've noticed that whenever I fast, the temptation to eat whatever I'm fasting from is suddenly absolutley overwhelming. But this applies to more than just food. When your heart is hungry, when your soul is hungry, when your mind is hungry, when your lust is hungry, when your stomach is hungry...Satan will try and get you to fill that space.
But so often I don't realize spiritual attack for what it is!

The other day I had a conversation with a man about the Bible. He had studied the Bible for years in Jerusalem learning the Hebrew and ancient Greek so that he could better understand what was being said. Then, as we talked, he began to list all of the contradictions in the Bible and in it's translation from the original languages to English. He told me about different verses that weren't added until after the Bible was written, of things taken out of context. My mind was spinning and I felt nausesous. I kept thinking, "Jesus, what am I supposed to do with this?" The man was quoting passages of the Bible to me in Hebrew and Greek, he obviously knew what he was talking about!

After the conversation I felt that my faith was shaken. I immediatley started to doubt the Bible. And if the Bible is innacurate or untrue then so is God, so is Jesus. So is everything I've believed and turned too. I could feel the Holy Spirit trying to speak to me, remind me of the truths I've EXPERIENCED. But I didn't want to heart it. Quite frankly, if God wasn't real that meant I could go back to living my life how I wanted and stop having to give things up for Jesus. I was angry.
I was annoyed.
And I was hungry...in more ways than one.

The attack kept coming that night. And I found myself tempted to do things that didn't glorify God in all kinds of ways. I felt confused. I laid down to sleep and couldn't muster up the will to pray. I closed my eyes and whispered to Jesus, " Just show me the truth."

When I woke in the morning all of the pain, confusion, anger, and temptation was gone. The Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus' temptation and how I need to know the scriptures well enough to use them offensivley when it comes to the enemy. He is the tempter, the father of lies, and he will twist the words of the Lord to make us doubt, or worse tell us exactly what we want to hear.
The tempter will come to you, and he will double his attacks when you are hungry or thirsting.
But the Lord is our daily bread and living water, He replenishes our souls.

Lord you are so good to fill me and remind me of the truth this morning when I woke up! Thank you from keeping me from giving into any of my temptations and for reminding me of who you are. You are real and You are Truth like nothing I've ever known. Help me be richly in the scriptures and help me write them on my heart so that I can speak them to the enemy and over myself. Holy Spirit give me discernment of the enemies attacks, of anything that is not of you. And then give me the strength to rebuke it in Jesus' name! I love you, thank you for fighting for me always and never letting me stray to far. You are the Good Shepherd. I love you.