I do a lot of thinking while I’m getting ready in the morning. I think of my own condition, and the condition of those I meet in the world. Today, I was thinking about how we have a hard time, as humans, being satisfied. We live in a day and age where much of the developed world is prosperous, but doesn’t enjoy it. As a matter of fact, in our prosperity, we have developed a culture of envy. People write on free services, using $1,000 phones, sipping $5 cups of coffee about how they have never known prosperity, and then get in to their hybrid vehicles and go to apartments that are bigger than what many in third world countries would consider a palace. What is our problem? Simply this: we can’t ever be satisfied, in need or in abundance. This is why Jesus teaches us “give us this day our daily bread.”
This draws us back to the wilderness, where the hungry Israelites complained about having no food, and so, each day, God provided manna from heaven, a flaky, golden bread that would be enough to satisfy them for the day. Jesus went further, in the Gospel of John, to say that He is the bread that came down from heaven. In other words, He is our daily bread that the Father provides, enough to keep us satisfied forever. Why, then, do we have such a hard time being satisfied?
Many of us approach the throne of God with demands. We want Jesus to fulfill our every desire. We want the church to be full of people who affirm our every decision, and don’t correct or draw us back to Holiness. We want, want, want, but how often do we simply come to God and say, “Be our Satisfaction”? Jesus, as the Bread of Life is enough, if we get out of the way. The things of this life, money, possessions, even friends are never enough to satisfy; we always desire more, newer, and better. Yet Jesus, who is the same yesterday as He is today, as He will be tomorrow is ALWAYS enough. The things of this life perish: there is not a single thing we can bring with us when we breath our last breath; Jesus is eternal, and one way or the other we will meet Him in eternity. What then is the secret of true satisfaction in life, even if it is full of trouble and turmoil? Seeking after what doesn’t fail, rust, or crumble, and only Jesus meets that criterion. So, eat of the Bread of Life and be satisfied; eat of it daily and be content. John 6:25-51 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
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