On YouTube sing along to: ‘10,000 reasons lyrics’
Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but Thou art mighty; hold me with Thy powerful hand:
Bread of heaven – Bread of heaven feed me now & evermore.
(William Williams 1717-91)
In today’s bible reading Jesus is talking to a crowd of people who originally came hoping to see him heal people – instead they found that Jesus performed a miracle which impacted their own lives – he fed them with fish and bread. Having experienced a miracle in their own lives, the next day they follow Jesus to see if he will once again feed them. Read: John 6. 26–35
We all know the feeling which can cause us to say ‘I’m famished’ and we also know the feeling which causes us to admit ‘I’m so full I couldn’t eat another thing’. If you were to spiritualise those statements which is the closest to how you are feeling at the moment?
It would be great if we responded just as naturally and quickly to spiritual hunger as we do to our physical needs. Jesus is telling this crowd that though they came looking for physical food, their real need is spiritual nourishment.
Jsus is also addressing the fact that while they were looking for the special and spectacular, what they actually needed was steady, regular nourishment. We all know that we won’t be healthy if we only ever eat our favourite desert, and we also know that on those occasions when we are ill and don’t feel like eating we still need to eat food to help us recover. I will leave you to work out the spiritual implications of those two facts.
By Jesus declaring that he is the bread of life (v.35) he is promising that he will fulfil whatever we hunger and thirst for in our lives; he promises that he will provide all that we need, but please note that isn’t always the same as all that we want. Jesus’ statement tells us that the more we understand of who he is - the more fulfilled we will feel and the more satisfied we will be.
Jesus’ declaration also reminds us that we shouldn’t think that a few moments reading about him on a Sunday, Wednesday and Friday will fulfil us, but like physical food we need regular times of allowing God to nourish us. Usually this spiritual nourishing will start through us reading the bible – even when that reading might me as unappealing as the vegetable you least like, but as we ask God to nourish us he will bring all sorts of goodness out of that bible passage. Underneath this article, on the left-hand side is a link to UCB Word for Today (United Christian Broadcasting). Each day you can read or listen to a few verses of scripture and a thought based on those scriptures.
A prayer which helps us to respond to Jesus’ declaration that he is the bread of life
Lord Jesus, you are an essential part of my diet.
Just as bread satisfies my hunger for food,
satisfy my hunger to discover more about God:
Just as the bread I eat helps me to grow stronger,
help my trust in you grow stronger:
Lord Jesus feed me with your love and your teaching
each and every day. Amen
Use these familiar lyrics to enter into a time of thanking Jesus for the many different ways he has nourished our lives.
Shout for joy and sing your praises to the king,
Lift your voice and let your hallelujahs ring;
Come before his throne to worship and adore,
enter joyfully now the presence of the Lord.
You are my creator, you are my deliverer,
you are my Redeemer, you are Lord, and you are my healer.
You are my provider, you are now my shepherd, and my guide,
Jesus, Lord and King, I worship you.
(David Fellingham © 1988 Kingsway’s ThankYou Music)
Listen to YouTube: ‘Lift high the name of Jesus lyrics’
If you are reading this early on Sunday morning, you may wish at 11am to join with others in remembering Jesus’ sacrificial death. It is an opportunity to remember that through faith in our Jesus’ death being the punishment we deserve because of our sin, God chooses to see us as righteous and has given us the ever-present help of his Holy Spirit.
At 11am read aloud 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26, then eat an emblem of the body of Christ (bread, cracker, biscuit etc..) and drink an emblem of the blood of Jesus (any red coloured drink) before saying out loud the Lord’s Prayer.
I look forward to writing to you again on Wednesday - Stephen