Feed Me!

I love the smell of fresh baked bread!  It ranks up there with the smell of coffee and bacon (the trifecta of breakfast).  There is a bakery next to a restaurant we love to eat at that has wonderful bread, cookies, pastries and more delicious goodies.  The smell of the bakery hits you way before you get there.  Now that you’re hungry let’s talk about food some more. Buying groceries is something all of us must do because we all must eat.  My little girl has a one word phrase when she wants to eat.  She cries out “hungry” – not “I’m hungry” or “Can I have a snack.”  Hunger drives us to gather food.  At the grocery store there are many aisles of various foods.  You gather what you need for a week or two, take that home and prepare daily meals out of that supply. 

In Matthew 6:11, Jesus said, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  He was referring to praying for and spending time in a daily word from God’s Bible.  The Bible is, let’s say, the “grocery store”.  You can’t eat the whole grocery store at one time but you can gather enough to fill you one meal at a time and then go back for more when that runs out.  We eat physical meals several times daily (and snack in between).  We should also eat “spiritual” meals several times each day (and snack in between).  We must stroll through the “aisles” (books, chapters) of God’s Word and select what we need for that day’s meal.  Maybe we need more patience – go the “aisle” with patience scriptures on the shelf and put them in your basket.  If you can’t find it in the big “grocery store” (Bible) then ask for directions (from a pastor or more mature Christian) or just read the signs (table of contents, index).

Jesus said we need bread daily.  The Old Testament tells of a story when manna, a substance used to make bread or that was eaten by itself, fell from heaven and was available each day to feed the Israelites while they were wandering in the desert (Exodus 16:1-36; Numbers 11:1-9).  The manna was only good for that day.  Any manna stored up (possibly in fear or greed) was infested by worms and mold.  The picture was that God provided daily food to fill them.  We too need daily food from the Lord – that’s His Word.  What I ate (read and applied) yesterday was good but I need a fresh Word from the Lord today.  Physical food is great and a must but we can’t live by bread alone – but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4). 

Jesus said something great.  He is the Bread of Life.  John 6:35 says, “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’”  He is the true and living bread (John 6:51, 58).  Jesus had just performed an all-you-can-eat miracle of feeding the five thousand in John 6:1-15.  It was so good and the people were hungry the next day came to find Jesus so He could do it again.  He told them His real purpose wasn’t to be a buffet for the belly but one for the soul.  The things of this world will not satisfy you very long.  You can be deceived into thinking that worldly things will bring fulfillment.  Maybe they do for a moment but they quickly fade and we’re off searching for the next fix.  My prayer is that you find your fulfillment in The Bread of Life – Jesus and His daily Bread (the Bible).  Don’t chase after Jesus like the 5,000, merely searching for “bread and fish” and miss Him - the Bread of Life.