They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” (John 6:30-31)
Read: Psalms 27 – 32
Relate: Once upon a time greed was a vice. Now it is a virtue. No, we still call it a vice but at the same time we make heroes of those who are most successful in their greed. We call them heroes and put them on the cover of all our business magazines. We write books like Atlas Shrugged to praise the virtue of their selfishness. Our very economy in the western world, capitalism, would not even work if it were not for greed.
But greed is as old as time. Why did Cain kill Abel? Why did Adam and Eve eat from the fruit in the garden? They wanted the one thing… the only thing they could not have. In John 6 Jesus is dealing with a crowd of greedy beggars. Just a short time ago He performed a miracle in feeding thousands thanks to the generosity of one little boy. Now here they all are chasing Him down asking for a miraculous sign. They will only believe if He shows them a miracle. Liars. If that were true, they would all already believe. No, they are simply trying to cajole Him into doing it again. Or, better yet, make some manna appear on the ground like Moses did. “We don’t want to work for our bread. We want You to give it to us.”
React: It is easy for us to sit back and criticize these “followers” for being so greedy. But are we really any better? Am I any better? God does something amazing in my life and what do I want? Something more. If it doesn’t happen, what will I be praying, “God, don’t You love me? Don’t You care?” If I am listening well, I will hear Him responding “Don’t you remember?” The thing is. Yesterday’s miracle is all too often not enough for me. All too often it is not the heart of God I am after, it’s His hand. I hate to admit it but I am a miracle chaser just as much as they were. God forgive me.
Respond:
God, help me to be content with You alone. Even if You never do another thing for me, by dying on that cross You have done far, far more than enough. Your grace and mercy lavished on me is much more of a miracle than I can ever deserve. Help me to learn to be content in You. Help me to stop being so greedy. I don’t want to be a miracle chaser, I want to chase after You.
THE RIVER WALK 
Reblogged this on What's The Good Word? and commented:
BJ’s prayer at the end hits the spiritual nail on the head. God grant us grateful hearts that are content with your Salvation!
Reblogged to What’s the Good Word? The prayer positively punched me in the gut and put me on my knees. May we always be completely satisfied with Him and Him alone! Blessings ~ Laura
HE is more than enough!! What a great reminder!
Lord, “Help me to learn to be content in You.” but never let me be complacent.
Reblogged this on The Human Aspirer and commented:
I think sometimes we forget what it being a Christ like means because we try so hard to not be consumed by it all. To be consumed by the world and all it stands for
Thank You BJ,
Lord, please help us find the miracle of knowing You. What else on earth or above could ever blow our minds like realizing that us sinners can be miraculously found in a close, loving relationship with our God. Please fill us with a sense of Your presence which does not depend on any other proof at all. And thank you Father for men and women like BJ who still point away to you!
Amen
I can relate to this well, BJ. I found that blogging helped my focus. By building my own standing stones of words, I am able to look back and remember that He is indeed at work all of the time in my life. Without the tangible reminders, I become a horrible spiritual whiner. 🙂
I’m praying your prayer here for myself. Wonderful post.
I am a newby to the world of blogging and I just love your blog! You have so much to offer.
It is really important to accept God in good times and bad – not to only worship or love Him because/when He gives us what we want. But believing Him is also very important – believing His promises, believing that He is, really, all-powerful and can accomplish any thing, believing that He is always ready and able to heal us, wherever we are – although His way of doing it might be very different and is often less obvious than we expect. I think, therefore, that we do need to expect miracles – but for the right reasons – which is perhaps the caveat to the topic of your post?
Thank you so much for sharing this. I have this on dvd (somewhere), but I had forgotten it.