I think we can all agree that some of the food we eat can be seen as a wonderful gift from above. (In fact, according to my Facebook feed from Sunday afternoon, Randy Wade made the folks over at the Kaufman campus have a hankering for some good chicken-fried steak). If you don’t feel that way about food, you should make your way over to one of the many great steakhouses in the Dallas area to get a good reminder. The only negative I see when I find a good meal is that, sometimes, I like to eat too much of it. Way too much of it. Especially if there is any type of good bread that comes along, either before or during the meal. Take Texas Roadhouse, for instance. Those rolls, with that fantastic butter, more often than not do not allow me to enjoy the actual meal I have ordered to eat. The bread alone has a tendency to satisfy my appetite for that particular meal.
Long before the rolls were created at Texas Roadhouse, Jesus had fed the roughly 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish — with plenty left over after they had their fill. The men, women and children who had been fed knew that they had seen something miraculous from this man named Jesus on that day. The crowds continued to follow him the next day, when he revealed to them that his Father is the one that gives them the true bread of life, which he was sent down from heaven to give to the world.
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 not 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.”
— John 6:35-40
Jesus reveals here that his provision is to be the Savior of the world. His sole purpose for coming to this earth was to give true life to those who believe in him. Receiving the “bread of life” means knowing and believing in who Jesus is: the one that came down from heaven to give us eternal life through his death. This allows those of us who believe in him to live a life free of hunger and thirst for eternal things. Later in the same chapter, Jesus states:
“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.”
— John 6:51
As you continue throughout today and the rest of your week, examine where you are letting God be the bread of your life. Allow him to speak to the areas in your life where you may be looking for strength outside of him. He will never let you hunger or thirst.