Read: John 6:25-40
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life.” (v. 35)
What are you hungry for? When we miss a meal, we feel the physical sensation of a rumbling tummy. But other things can gnaw at us as well: a stack of unpaid bills, a sense of loneliness, a fear of the future. We all carry desires for a variety of physical and emotional comforts. Being human means, at times, being hungry.
God wants us to bring our most basic needs to him. Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer to ask God each day for daily bread. In the first part of John 6, Jesus provided for the physical hunger of the crowd. But the next day, when the crowd followed him across the sea, Jesus recognized that they were seeking him only because he’d given them bread. Wanting to point them to a deeper spiritual reality, Jesus taught the crowd that he himself was the “bread of life” (v. 35) who “comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (v. 33). Whoever came to him, he promised, would not be hungry again. If Jesus had been referring to physical hunger, then Christians would never have to go to the grocery store. But in verse 40, Jesus revealed that he was now talking about the eternal, abundant life of knowing him.
We can bring our physical and emotional needs to God and watch for him to answer our prayers. But we also come to God for God himself. Jesus himself is the bread that always satisfies.
As you pray, ask God to satisfy those with both physical and spiritual hunger.
About the Author
Sarah Sanderson is the author of The Place We Make: Breaking the Legacy of Legalized Hate. She lives with her husband and their four teenage children in Oregon.
