Jesus, the Bread of Life

The more I read the Bible the more impressed I become with how clever Jesus is. In the beginning of Chapter 6, when Jesus feeds the 5000 with five loaves of bread and two fish, do you think He was already planning to bring up the idea of the bread of life? It appears to me that He set the stage to be able to say – you want me to do more miracles and give you more bread. BUT, I have some better bread for you. Spiritual bread. When Moses and the Israelites were in the desert God sent them bread everyday to nourish them. Jesus says, just as the Israelites needed this physical bread daily, you need my spiritual bread daily to grow in your faith.

Another concept we talked about was the idea of testing God and asking for signs. For instance, asking God for a sign as to whether you should work for Qdoba or Dairy Queen. Later in the day, someone talks about a burrito they just had from Qdoba and you think that’s it! That’s my sign. The problem with this is it could just be a coincidence. Asking for a sign is easy – it doesn’t require any time spent with God. Throughout the Bible, God fights for us to have a relationship with Him. He wants us to be so close to Him that we recognize His voice and learn to follow Him by the Holy Spirit’s guidance rather than a “sign.”

So, some thoughts for the week:

How are you doing at getting your “daily” bread?

Why is it so hard to make the time to read the Bible and talk to God every day?

Are you asking for signs or are you making the time to listen to God’s voice?

What is the Spirit guiding you to do this week?

When is He telling you to speak or when to wait?

Who is God in the process of drawing to Him that He might want you to help along?