Sunday 7 Apr 2013

Sunday Reading: John 6:31-35

Key Verse: John 6:35
35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Devotion:
When the disciples began asking Jesus questions they started to learn. They had heard the stories about how Moses had led the people through the desert and how Manna was supplied for them to eat, but whether they actually believed that God was the one supplying that Manna was clearly in question – why would Jesus highlight the fact that it came from God and not from Moses?

But Jesus did not stop at saying that this came from God in heaven; instead He continued to say that they received bread from heaven and the true bread of God was not in fact the Manna from the Old Testament but the one that God sent down from heaven to be with man. That same person that God sent down would be the one who gave life back to man after man took on the mantle of death from sinning his whole life. When the disciples heard this they wanted more of this bread; the answer they got was probably one they did not expect when Jesus said that He was the Bread of Life.

Jesus was given this title because He is the one who gives life to sinners such as us. We are dead to our sins and no matter what we eat physically it will not take away from that debt that we owe because of that sin. There is only one bread that will be able to do that and that is Christ because He is the one that gave His life in our stead for our sins. They did not know that He would be giving His life as a lamb for them at that time, but they were beginning to learn just how important Christ is.

When Christ says that He will feed us it is not going to be just a bit more physical bread or Manna but rather He will fill us spiritually so that we may draw closer to God. When Christ said that they would never thirst it was not the physical thirst He was talking of but that spiritual need we have. The more we get to know God the more we want to know about Him and the more we want to know what He wants for us in our lives. Inside we are starving and we need to be fed just as we are physically, so why limit it to once a week on Sundays? Why not get your spiritual bread a few times a day?

Points to Ponder:
How many meals do you have each day?

How many times do you learn about God each day?