Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh. (John 6:48-51)

Read: Psalm 88-89, Psalm 144-145

Relate: For lunch yesterday I had two sausage and cheese sandwiches. I used potato bread. Love the stuff. That morning for breakfast, I had Maple and Brown Sugar Life cereal. My favorite. By definition cereal is grain, it is bread. Some other types clearly fall out of the purview of this definition but right on the side of the box Life boasts that it is “made with 18 grams of whole grain per serving”. For dinner I ate pizza. The crust, the dough, is a type of bread. We can’t escape it. Man does not live on bread alone, but without bread, we do not live.

Perhaps if Jesus were born in the far east He would have said, “I am the rice of life”. If he were born in the Americas back before Columbus (and Leif Eriksson, and Henry Sinclair, and Saint Brendan, and the Polynesians, and whoever else got there earlier than Chris) he might have said, “I am the maize of life”. Whatever. What He is saying is, “I am the staple.” Everything else in life is just window dressing. He is the core substance upon which our very survival depends. There is no getting around it. We need Him.

React: I need Him. On a normal day I eat three meals plus a snack or two. Technically I can go days without food and I have at times, but in reality if I am going more than a few hours without putting something in my mouth, I am no longer performing at my best. I will get cranky. I will get easily distracted. My thinking becomes sluggish. This process could begin in as little as three hours but it will definitely kick in by five to six tops.

Although I have such an obvious need for physical bread, for some reason I try to convince myself that I only need a little nibble from the Bread of Life early in the morning to get me through the day. How can I be at my best spiritually if I am only once a day getting an insufficient diet through a shallow five minute devotional that possibly includes a verse or two that will most likely I gloss over? Even worse, I know people who think they can survive by only eating one big meal once a week on Sundays. (Sadly enough, that meal is often little more than unhealthy fluff) Both of these are starvation diets. I wonder what we would look like if we could see ourselves  in the mirror spiritually instead of physically. How many of us would be emaciated, gaunt, and starved? He offers us so much, but how little do we really take what He has to offer?

Respond: 

Jesus, You are the Bread of Life. Help me to eat of You daily, regularly, consistently. Help me to realize how much I am truly dependent on You and how little I am taking of what You offer. Make me ever more hungry for more of You.