[RE]FOCUS Day 31
Week 5: Revealing
Day 3: I am the Bread of Life
By Allison Carr
READ:
What’s the best meal you have ever eaten in your life? You know the kind of meal that you just keep going back for more or the meal that you drive out of the way for because nothing at home can quite hit the same spot? Perhaps the meal that you just can’t seem to put your fork down or fathom the thought of any of it going to waste. Whatever meal that is for you, I’m sure it’s the epitome of satisfying. Now imagine for a second never being in want or need of anything ever again? Imagine the feeling of total satisfaction constantly!
As people of a world based on consumerism, that’s definitely hard to fathom. We all have needs and wants. Grocery lists that seem a mile long, products we want to help simplify our lives or simply bring us joy and of course delicious food that just hits the spot! As ideal as that may sound, the reality is that’s completely unattainable. As sinful people, we aren’t very good at being satisfied. We have a tendency to always yearn for more, different, or what someone else has. And unfortunately, we live in a world that tries to sell us a life of attainable, complete satisfaction if we just had more.
As we continue to refocus our hearts and our minds, I am reminded that we all have a Jesus shaped hole in our hearts left by sin. From the time we were born, complete satisfaction was never attainable on our own and no matter how many things we try to fill that hole, it will remain empty without Jesus.
In John 6:35 Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.” Jesus declares “I AM” to express the bountiful life we can have only through a relationship with Him. Bread has become synonymous with food. When I rack my brain of scriptures that specifically mention bread, I can come up with quite a few. I think of the unleavened bread of Passover, and the manna that rained down from heaven and sustained the Israelites over their 40 years of wandering. I also think of what Jesus did with five loaves of bread accompanying two fish and the bread He distributed to His disciples the night He was betrayed. But, Jesus isn’t simply talking about the deliciousness of bread or physical hunger and thirst. Bread was a dietary staple, but Jesus is an eternal essential.
A person (myself included) could survive a long time on bread and water, but eventually, we would feel the itch of dissatisfaction. I could travel to the ends of the earth and have more money than I know what to do with, but without Jesus, I would always be searching for more. Jesus satisfies our hunger and thirst and bridged the gap bringing us back into a relationship with God. Jesus, and Jesus alone, can fill our hearts and bring us the true and eternal satisfaction of abundant life. So, get your fill of Him, devour His Word and cling to the cross.
PRAY:
God, You satisfy the desires of every living thing. Refocus me so that I find more than I could ever imagine in You, Your Word, Your people, Your body, Your blood. Use me to point others to the source of every good thing: You. Amen.
LIVE:
What is the “daily bread” you crave today? How is it different from yesterday? How is God providing this to you? How can God use you to provide for someone else’s “daily bread?”