December 9: The Bread of Life
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
We like to fill our stomachs when hunger strikes, but how do we respond to a spiritual hunger? The incorrect response that can trap us is the action of filling this spiritual hunger with thoroughly unspiritual things. We turn to worldly things to try and fill this hunger which turns out to be the work of vanity. From experience, many of us would know that this hunger won’t be satisfied with the temporary things of this world no matter how much ‘stuff’ we try to fill it with. That’s where the good news of Jesus comes.
When Jesus says that he is the “bread of life”, he is making us a promise. First, he saying that he is the eternal food that the Father has sent, which then leads to his claim that those who go to him will be forever satisfied in their eternal needs. How, then, do we eat this bread of life and find satisfaction? We do this through regular fellowship within our church, the regular preaching of the word, the regular reading of the word and prayer. These “rhythms of grace” which God has given to His Church are to make us ‘full’ so that we would be completely satisfied in Him, instead of spending our life hopelessly searching for things that will perish (John 6:27).
Coming to this time of Christmas we are led to remember that Jesus is the Bread of Life. He makes a promise that those who follow after him will be full and satisfied in the ways that matter most: spiritually and eternally. Those who go to Christ will find a perfect, eternal and enduring spiritual satisfaction. Let us put down the things of vanity, and seek what is enduring, for only the bread of life will truly satisfy.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, you have promised us that if we believe and come to Jesus, we will no longer be thirsty or hungry, but have everlasting life in you. Would you reveal to me today where I might be trying to replace you with things that are only temporal, and lead me to give up those things that perish. Help me pursue you alone as the source of my true joy. Would you be all satisfying and all sustaining to me. Amen.