Stones to Bread: A Word From the Father

I just re-read the account of Jesus temptation. The first temptation really struck me as strange. I guess it always has. Jesus had been fasting in the desert. After 40 days Satan comes to him and tempts him to turn the stones into bread. Why would that be a sin? Especially since as soon as he comes out of the desert he goes to a wedding and turns water into wine. Now that's a problem. If you didn't know anything about the Bible and I told you that Jesus was going to be tempted which of those would you guess was the temptation? Water into wine seems like such an obvious choice for a temptation it seems like a no brainer. And it would be fairly easy to resist. Of course you wouldn't turn water into wine. But stones into bread? Jesus would multiply loaves and fish in a couple of months. Why is it a sin in the desert and a miracle on the hillside? I think the temptation was to fill his deepest need at the moment with his own power. Jesus responded to that temptation by saying,"Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." The last thing Jesus heard God say before going into the desert was, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Satan was offering Jesus a way to fill himself up. If I am right then that is the way Satan tempts me as well. All around me are stones he is telling me to turn into bread and try to use to fill myself with. My job. Satan says, "Take work Joe and fill yourself up with it. Put your value into what you do and not what God says about you." Or take your family or your children, or your possessions, or a hundred other things and use them to fill the emptiness. Everywhere I look there are stones waiting to be turned to bread. But Jesus tells me something else and he tells you something else. He tells us how the Father feels about us. He says, "Listen to the voice of the Father and let his love sink down into the hollow places. Hear how he loves you. Even as the Father loved me so he loves you now." Let that be food for your soul. Let this be your daily bread.