What kind of bread are you eating?

Bread, bread, bread!

I love bread. Period. If I didn’t have to worry about my weight or my health, I would probably eat it all day long! No wonder the passage in the Bible on the Bread of Life always catches my eye!

Anyway – I have been reading through the book of John and when I got to this passage, I got new insights – insights that I had never thought of before. That’s what happens when you read the Bible over and over – every time you read a passage, it’s like you are reading it for the first time!

Back to my question – what bread are you feeding on? Or more importantly, what is so special about the bread that Jesus talked about, the Bread of Life?

The Bread of Life lasts forever

John 6:27 “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (NIV)

The bread we eat only stays for a short while in our tummies, right? No wonder teenagers consume so much of it! If this bread stayed longer in our tummies or was ‘heavier’, we would not have to go looking for a snack an hour or two later!

The Bread of Life, Jesus, fills us completely. Once we have Jesus, we do not need anything or anyone else to fill our lives, because we are complete in Him.

Let me talk about another kind of bread that many of us have ‘eaten’ and found ourselves needing more and more – the love we get from our friends, lovers, spouses, and family members. Have you ever noticed that even when these people love you, you always feel like it’s not satisfying enough, and you need more of it? This is not the only ‘unsatisfying’ bread out there – there are so many other examples that I could list.

Why turn to things that only satisfy you for a short while when Jesus, the Bread of Life, is ready to fill your heart and your soul to the point that you are content and at peace?

Food for thought…

The Bread of Life gives life

Does that little slice of white or brown bread give life? Well, it certainly gives you a tiny sugar boost, but definitely not life! How can it give life, yet it does not have life itself?

Jesus, the Bread of Life, has life! And guess what – He longs for us to be partakers of this life!

John 6:33 “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (NIV)

What kind of life am I talking about here? I am talking about a life that is full of Jesus and fully controlled by Him. We are human, and we love to be in control of our lives. From my experience, however, whenever I decide to take control of my life, things go haywire. That’s when I get worked up or irritated the most because no matter how hard I try to take charge of everything, I can’t, because there are some things nobody can control! When I let the Lord take charge, though, I can relax knowing that the things I can’t control are safely in His hands!

Jesus, the Bread of Life, also gives us eternal life.

John 6:48-51 “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  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.” (NIV)

Jesus came down from heaven and gave his life for us so that we could have eternal life. Eating the Bread of Life is similar to accepting the sacrifice that He made for us. What a valuable sacrifice that was! Can you imagine living without eternal hope, knowing that life on earth does not last forever, yet you don’t know where you are going when it is all over? I find such peace in knowing that Jesus is waiting to receive me when I leave this world, all because I chose to ‘eat’ the Bread of Life!

The Bread of Life satisfies our hunger and quenches our thirst

John 6:35 “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. “ (NIV)

Ok, that little slice of bread may deal with your urgent hunger pangs, but it will certainly not deal with your thirst! Jesus, the Bread of Life, must therefore be a special kind of bread that fulfills both of these bodily needs!

Let’s think about spiritual hunger and thirst. Sometimes we don’t even realize that we are spiritually hungry or thirsty, or in other words, in need of God. It’s like we have this big hole in our hearts reminding us that we have to fill it, but we don’t know what to fill it with!

Spiritual hunger is not funny, by the way. Spiritual thirst is even worse! I did so many things like getting into relationships, trying to serve God my own way, becoming more outgoing and making lots of unnecessary noise as I tried to become more popular, and throwing myself into my studies, thinking they were enough to quench that thirst, forgetting that the only way out was letting Jesus control my life.

Why look elsewhere, when the Bread of Life is available to fulfill all your desires, both physical and spiritual? I have met people who have struggles with certain physical desires that don’t please God, yet, when they turn them over to Him, He takes them away, replacing them with something better- Himself.

In short – Jesus is all you need. He is the Bread of Life. He is here to give you eternal life. He is here to fill you up completely with Himself. He will be there to fill you up every time you ask Him to do so. What He gives us is always the same – never going stale, never out of stock in the supermarket, never running out in the fridge – always available.  

Having the Bread of Life in my life is amazing. I think you should give it a try.

John 6:48 “I am the bread of life.” (NIV)