Song (Click to listen): God will take care of you, through every day along the way. He will take care of you. God will take care of you.

In Luke 4:4, Jesus is full spiritually, of the spirit of God, but physically hungry and Satan asks him, why don’t you turn these stones into bread, knowing that he, being the son of God, has the power to do it, and Jesus says, eating food is not why I am alive “It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Jesus here is setting an example for believers to choose between what their circumstances are saying and what God has spoken. What God says is greater than what people speak over your life. Jesus also knew that performing miracles to feed his physical body was not the purpose of his life. Jesus is the word God spoke and promise He made to bless the world, beyond providing for our physical needs.

This reference that Jesus gives, comes from Deuteronomy 8:2-3 where God tells Moses to remember that he is the provider of all life, that he fed Moses and the children of Israel in the wilderness, not so that they wouldn’t starve, but so that they would know that ‘man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord, does he live.’ When you believe that God is the provider of your life, all of his promises of provision are yours. In Isaiah 43 God says that those who belong to him, through Jesus, are his and are formed by him. Life may bring with it many challenges but through them all the Creator of life will be with you to lead you, provide for you, to save you and forgive your sins.

In John chapter six many people followed Jesus and his disciples to hear what he had to say and to listen to his teachings about who God is and the Kingdom of God. John 6:1-14 shares the account of a time when a massive crowd followed Jesus to a place where there was no food nearby to eat. Jesus, knowing that people have basic needs, asks his disciples ‘how will we feed all of these people’? One of his disciples found someone with five loaves of bread and two fishes and said, “but how far will they go among so many?” Jesus, after praying to God, fed the crowd to their filling. The five loaves and the two fish fed them all. The food did not run out. They even had leftovers. After he fed them, Jesus began teaching again and then left and the crowd followed him to where he was going.

In John 6:26 Jesus says to the crowd that followed him, “You are not looking for me because you saw miracles, but because you ate the loaves of bread and were filled.” And then Jesus says, in John 6:27 “Labor not for the meat which will perish, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the son of man will give you, for on him God has placed his seal of approval.” Jesus in this account is the bread that does not run out. The food that can sustain many; the food that Jesus gives satisfies more than food we eat to sustain our physical bodies, because belief in him gives eternal life and access to the promise and approval of God.

Psychologically we consume more than food to sustain us. We look to people and things for nourishment, to give us the love that we crave or the respect that we crave. The validation that we consume from things and people has a shelf life. It is the meat that will perish. We give the nourishing power of love to the level we have within ourselves to give, out of our own imperfection and our own feelings of debasement, and when we run out of respect and love for ourselves, every interaction has the potential to be spoiled by our lack.

Jesus in John 6 is saying don’t look to things in life or people to satisfy spiritual needs. You can’t give it to yourself and you can’t receive it from things or other people. Jesus says in John 6:48, I am the bread that gives life. Who is Jesus? Jesus is the word of God, God’s promise fulfilled. When we consume Jesus, the words God speaks, or the words he has spoken through Jesus we eat the kind of spiritual nourishment that revitalizes the soul by taking spiritual food and nourishment from the word of God, not from life.

God’s words are true and he promises to be faithful to his word and everyone who believes in him. What are some of these promises and the food that Jesus gives that gives more life than the food we work for that spoils? The promise of believing in Jesus is that every word he says is true. In Isaiah 43:25 God says, “even I am he who blots out your transgressions and for my own sake I do not remember them.” In Isaiah 43 the food we need that people are incapable of providing is forgiveness. Jesus gives forgiveness and mercy.

People are incapable of this kind of forgiveness: to be guilty, at fault and then to forgive and not remember the harm. Because of the sin sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross all who believe in him are forgiven of everything. You do not need to hold on to the torment and weight of guilt because if you believe in Jesus, that he forgives, you will not go looking to anyone else for forgiveness because even if they can forgive you, forgiveness that we psychologically require is the erasure of the weight and burden that we are unforgiveable and unworthy of forgiveness, that we can do something that could take us out of favor with society.

Society through its judicial process has convinced us that a judge brings justice, and a guilty verdict is your identity. What laws are incapable of doing, forgiving and mercy, God in Jesus is. God in Jesus is greater than the law and erases guilt by belief in Jesus. Psalms 103:11 says “for as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him” and Psalms 103:12 “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” There is no record of wrong, if you believe Jesus is able to forgive. This is the food and approval we need. God approves Jesus and Jesus approves those who believe in him.

In Psalms 103:4 the food we need that people are incapable of providing is love and acceptance. Jesus gives love and acceptance. Hard work, health, economic wealth, and a good job are incapable of giving or satisfying us spiritually. The rewards of these accomplishments cannot satisfy our spiritual need for love and acceptance. In Psalms 103:4 it says he (Jesus) crowns you with love and compassion and satisfies your desires with good things. The type of spiritual food Jesus gives provides the satisfaction that money and a good job cannot. If you look to your job (or working for meat that spoils) to feed your ego, you will go hungry spiritually. If you look to health and wealth (or working for meat that spoils) to bring you happiness and satisfy your sense of fulfillment or joy, you will go hungry spiritually.

Jesus in John 6:1-14 feeds 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two small fishes. This was a physical miracle but the spiritual miracle is in John 6:11 “Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks to God and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted.”In John 6:26 Jesus says you are looking for me not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Jesus says, I am the reason the little bit of food fed you because I am food, I am the bread that gives life.

Jesus’ power to feed people doesn’t stop with physical provision. Belief in Jesus provides spiritual nourishment for believers that is more than enough. Jesus says in John 6:47-51, to the Jews, you believe that manna came down from God in the wilderness and fed your ancestors, so believe also that I came down from heaven, from God. In John 6:53-58 Jesus says those who look to wealth for nourishment will die spiritually, those who look to acceptance from others for nourishment will die spiritually, but those who eat my flesh, the word of God, will live a life full of life. The food we need that people are incapable of providing is eternal life. The promise of believing in Jesus is the eternal promise of salvation of life.

To believe in Jesus is not easy even for disciples (believers). To believe that Jesus saves more than our ability to save ourselves is not easy. We believe science and religious actions will save us. We believe that strategy and diplomacy will keep enemies from us. We believe policies and laws will provide safety and improve the conditions of our lives. We believe clean eating will provide longevity and vitality. Some believe in the spiritualism of Masonic texts, eastern spiritualism, and alchemy to provide life that never ends and give power on earth. But Jesus says that only the Spirit of God gives life John 6:60-63. Your body can’t do anything without the Spirit of God moving in it. Jesus is the word of life that God speaks, and his words are full of the Spirit that brings life.

Jesus confesses that some people will never believe unless God the father enables them, makes them able to believe; and because they did not believe some disciples left Jesus John 6:64-66. Those that didn’t want to go asked Jesus, if you have life, and we believe that you have life, where else will we go John 6:67-68? Or how could we follow anyone else? If you are the shepherd that lightens the direction of our path, even in darkness, how can we go anywhere in life without you? This is the kind of faith needed to believe in Jesus, that there is no other way to live than with Jesus, no other life than the life Jesus gives.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice that gives me access to life. Help me to always able to believe in you and help my unbelief. Help me to trust you. Help me not to follow what my circumstances say or what people say but to believe the words of life that you have spoken and to follow and believe.

Song (Click to listen): Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

---