what do I know of trust?

Two thousand and twelve! A new year! How exciting!

I like to start my new year with a list. And one of the things on my list this year is to learn more about fasting. And I'm really excited about something that I learned so I want to share it with you. (I learned it in one of John Pipers' sermons from http://www.desiringgod.org/)

You may or may not know that Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness after He was baptized.

Matthew 4:1-4

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 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." But he answered, "It is written, 

'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights.

Jesus was hungry.

Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus can turn stones into bread.

Is it wrong to turn stones into bread?

Jesus answers the tempter from Scripture.

Deuteronomy 8:1-3
"The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."

Israelites led by God forty years in the wilderness.
Israelites humbled and tested through this experience.
Israelites were allowed to be hungry for a time, but then were fed.
Israelites were fed with manna, a bread which they had never experienced before, which was made by God.

What do I learn from this?
Well, I know that God can make bread from nothing, that making bread is not wrong.
And I also come to know that making the bread is not the point.
That the real point is trust God to satisfy your hunger and meet your needs.

WOW!

Isn't that huge!? That God may allow me to be hungry for a time, but that He is more than able to meet my needs, and not even necessarily in the way that I might expect Him to. That the goal is not the manna, but a deeper trust in my God.

Don't need bread, need God. Don't trust bread, trust God.

The steadfast love of God is better than life.