Hunger and Thirst

Do you take Jesus’ words literally? Or do you recognize some of His teachings as being metaphors? Do you apply His parables and metaphors to your life? How do you use them to identify a truth of God you can use each day?

There are times Jesus speaks very plainly. He means what His words literally mean. At other times, He speaks in parables or metaphors. He uses something we know to teach us God’s truth. We are to recognize them for what they are and seek to understand the truth of His words.

Today’s passage is a metaphor. Jesus does not literally mean that He will feed us and give us something to drink. Will He provide? Yes! He provides in more ways than we can count. He even provides us with food and drink. Just not in a literal sense, since He is not standing beside us and handing it over.

More importantly, today’s passage is speaking to spiritual truth. If we hunger to know God’s truth, He will fill us. If we thirst to know the meaning of God’s Word, He will satisfy us. It is not a question of whether Jesus can provide, but a question of whether we are truly seeking.

Far too often, we seek to find passages in Scripture to support our viewpoint rather than seeking to know God’s truth. Jesus is speaking to us and telling He will provide the truth and the meaning of God’s Word, if we hunger and thirst for it.

I pray we all seek to know the truth of God’s Word. I pray we ask God to reveal his truth to us. I pray each one of us will hunger and thirst to understand God’s truth and the meaning of his Word. Know the truth. Ask God to reveal it to you. Hunger for God’s truth. Thirst for God’s truth.

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Food That Endures Eternity

What are you working for? We ask ourselves that sometimes. We wonder, “What are we working for?” It seems as though we work and work and work, and there is nothing to show for it. We are not appreciated. We are underpaid. We barely get by from week to week.

So, what are you working for? There is something you should be working for. All of us should be working for the same thing, the food that endures for eternal life. Sound odd? It might. It is not of this world. We normally think of the food we eat to sustain our physical bodies.

What is the food that endures for eternal life? It is the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Word of God. Jesus tells us He will give us this food. If He will give it to us, what is the work? The work is to believe Him and believe in Him. It is to see all of Scripture as being about Him. The Bible is the story of God working in this world. It is a book from which we can gain insights into how we should live our lives.

But how do we understand the Bible? Jesus says He will give us the understanding we need when He says He will give us the food that endures for eternal life. We do not need to know and understand every tiny detail. We need to trust that Jesus will reveal what we need to know. Rather than bringing all our baggage and the worlds view, we need to allow Jesus to renew our minds and reveal His truth.

I pray we all work for the food that endures eternal life. I pray we seek to fill ourselves with Jesus. I pray each one of us asks Jesus to reveal to us the truth of His Word He wants us to know. Work for the true food. Trust Jesus will give it to you. Fill yourself with Him.

John 6:25-27 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

Speak Truth In Love

Do you like to speak the truth? Do you like to rub it in peoples’ faces? Do you speak the truth abrasively? Or do you speak the truth with hesitation? Do you speak it as if you are almost ashamed of it? Are you willing to speak the truth in love while loving the person you are speaking to?

Speaking the truth can be a challenge. Sometimes, we just want to rub peoples’ noses in it. We want to say, “I told you so.” Other times we aren’t sure we want to speak the truth. We are afraid of how people will react. Or maybe we simply want people to find out on their own.

Paul encouraged the church in Ephesus, and us, to speak the truth in love. We are to confidently, yet in a caring way, tell people the truth of the gospel. If we speak the truth harshly, we will turn people away. If we do not speak it confidently, people won’t believe us. It is a balancing act. We can only do it as we lean on the Holy Spirit for guidance.

Paul continues his encouragement by stating the purpose for speaking the truth. We are to speak it for growth in Jesus and uniting as one body. We are to remember we are one body of Christ. No body, or organization, or nation can be at war with itself without destroying itself. But when we speak truth to grow in Christ in a loving way, the body is healthy and grows.

As the body of Christ, we are to be about building up one another in love. Anything else is not from God. Building one another up makes the body of Christ attractive to others and grows the kingdom of God. That should be the goal for each one of us.

I pray we all speak the truth in love. I pray we are encouraged to speak the gospel to others. I pray each one of us seek build up one another and by doing so build the body of Christ. Speak the truth. Love one another. Tell others the gospel. Build one another up. Strengthen the body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:15-16 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Begging A Worthy Life

What kind of life are you leading? Are you leading a humble life? Are you gentle? Are you being patient? Do you bear with others in love? Do you seek peace? Are you unified with others in the Spirit? Do you lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called?

When observe the lives many in our society are leading, we may shake our heads in wonder. Sometimes it seems as though they are wandering aimlessly. They may appear successful, having all the “toys,” but they seem to have no direction. That is not the life we are called to.

We are called to follow Jesus. That means following His commands, His teachings, and His example. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus what this means. We are to live a life worthy of our calling. Notice the list of traits Paul uses to describe that life. His list includes being humble and gentle. Not a doormat but someone who is kind and caring.

When he speaks of bearing with one another, Paul states it is to be done in love. The term to bear with means to put up with or to endure. In other words, when our fellow Christians make mistakes or have errors in judgment, we are to lovingly correct them rather than be angry and abusive. Otherwise, we fall to the temptations of Satan.

Paul states we are to make every effort to maintain unity. Remember, Jesus prayed for unity in John 17. That unity is to be in the Holy Spirit and the bond of peace. Peace is not only the absence of violence or hatefulness but includes a calmness in our spirit. That only comes when we allow the Holy Spirit to be our guide.

Notice Paul begs them (and us) to lead a life worthy of the calling. Most pastors continue begging the church they are leading to lead a life worthy of the calling. They continue to attempt to lead their churches to the traits Paul speaks of. The more our churches lead a life worthy our calling, the more we will see our churches grow.

I pray we all seek to live a life worthy of our calling. I pray are humble, gentle, and patient. I pray each one of us will bear with one another in love, maintaining unity of the Holy Spirit. Lead worthy life. Be humble. Be gentle. Be patient. Bear with one another. Love one another. Be unified in the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:1-3 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

A Clean Heart

Do you pray daily? Do you pray more than once per day? What do you pray for? What is your most consistent request from God? Are you regularly praying that God works in your life? Are you praying he changes your heart? Are you praying for spiritual renewal?

Many of us have been taught that we should pray daily. Some of us pray every morning. Some of us pray over every meal. Some of us pray every evening before going to bed. Some of us may pray once we are in bed. Praying regularly is a good habit to have.

After David’s severe acts of sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, he repented with a contrite heart. His eyes had been opened by Nathan’s words, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 11:27). David realized he had been disobedient to God’s commands, acted unkinglike, and had lost his integrity. David realized he needed God to clean his heart and renew him.

We need to ask God to clean our hearts as well. We may not have committed adultery or murder, but our sin is no less egregious. We often discount our sin as being minor. Yet even the smallest sin required Jesus to go to the cross. In Romans 6:1, Paul asks a rhetorical question, “Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?” The obvious answer is no. Paul is implying that we should eliminate sin from our lives.

We cannot eliminate sin on our own. We need God to come into our hearts and remove the filth of sin from us; not merely forgive us but clean it out. This requires us to ask God to do just that. David does that succinctly in Psalm 51. He recognizes the abhorrent sin in his life and asks that God remove it and fill him with God’s Spirit. We would do well to do the same.

I pray we all recognize the severity of our sin. I pray we ask God to remove the sin from our hearts. I pray each one of us will ask God to fill us with his Spirit and renew us in Jesus Christ. Know your sin is abhorrent. Seek God with a contrite heart. Ask God to remove your sin. Ask God to fill you with his Holy Spirit.

Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God, 

and put a new and right spirit within me.

Be Cleansed By God

Have you ever done something so egregious that you fell to your knees and begged forgiveness? Was your heart broken because of what you had done? Did you wrestle with it for several days? Did God relieve you of your sorrow? Were you able to move on from it?

Some of us, and maybe many of us, have done something we immediately regretted. In some cases, it may have hurt someone badly. It may have been a physical action, or it may have been something we said. Regardless, it was something we could not take back.

We know sin is sin. Yet, some sins are more egregious than others. Those severe sins can be very difficult to live with. There are often severe consequences as a result of them. One of those consequences is our heart breaking when we reflect on what we have done. That can be the hardest thing to live with. Our guilt is worn on our face and in our heart.

David felt that way when he wrote the fifty-first Psalm. He knew he had sinned egregiously when he slept with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, purposely killed in battle. He fell to his knees and begged forgiveness from God. He knew he had allowed the power of being king to go to his head. He realized he had forgotten it was God who had given him his power. He turned back to God.

When we sin, we, too, can turn back to God. We can fall to our knees and ask God to forgive us. Repenting includes having the attitude and desire to turn away from the sin and commit it no more. God will heal our broken heart. He will cleanse us of our sin. If we are willing to follow him wholeheartedly, he will eliminate the sin from our lives.

I pray we all recognize our sin. I pray we fall to our knees before God and ask for forgiveness. I pray each one of us will choose to follow God’s guidance and allow him to remove our sin from us. Recognize your sin. Fall to your knees before God. Ask for forgiveness. Follow God’s guidance. Allow God to cleanse you of your sin.

Psalm 51:1-2

Have mercy on me, O God, 

according to your steadfast love; 

according to your abundant mercy 

blot out my transgressions. 

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, 

and cleanse me from my sin.

God Punishes Wrongdoing

Have you done something bad and had someone come with a message from higher up? Was it a message of chastisement? Was the message wrapped in a parable? Did you recognize the meaning of the message or did the messenger have to point it out?

There are times when we will speak in parables or in generalities when attempting to correct someone’s behavior. We may provide an example of something that had happened some time in the past that refers to the present. We do it so as to tactfully rebuke bad behavior.

God sent Nathan to David to let him know that he had done wrong. Not only that he had done wrong, but that his wrong was egregious and displeasing to God. Nathan told a parable to David, which upset David. He saw the injustice immediately and wanted to know who it was who had committed it. David was ready to punish the offender harshly.

Nathan tells David that he is the offender. He then chastises David with God’s reminder that he had rescued David, rewarded David with possessions, and elevated him to king over Israel. God even states that if what he had given David was not enough, he would have given David more. But because David had sent Uriah to his death because of Bathsheba, David would not have the sword removed from his house.

We may think David’s story has no effect on us. Yet, we can learn from it. Just as God punished David for his actions, we can expect God to punish us for bad behavior. It may not be as severe as David’s punishment. Since God is just, his punishment will be proportional to our wrongdoing. To avoid God’s punishment, we should seek God’s guidance in all we do.

I pray we all seek to avoid God’s punishment. I pray we seek God’s guidance for our lives. I pray each one of us learn a lesson from David and follow Jesus’ example for living our lives. God punishes wrongdoing. Seek God’s guidance. Follow Jesus’ example.

2 Samuel 11:27b – 12:1a But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, and the Lord sent Nathan to David.

Pray For Fullness

What do you pray for the most? Do you pray for personal gain? Are your prayers largely about physical healing? Do you pray for financial increase? Do you pray more for yourself or others? Do your prayers include growth in faith and understanding God’s will?

Personal prayers tend to be personal. They often concern our personal wants, desires, or needs. We will include our families and friends in our prayers. Unfortunately, our prayers rarely seek to know God’s will for our lives.

Understanding and comprehension of God is very challenging to us. Yet, it does not mean we cannot grow in both. We can come to know God much better. He is willing to reveal himself to us, if we will only ask.

Not only can we better understand God, but in doing so we can better understand his power. We think we know. We repeat the phrase, “God can do all things.” Yet, we do not fully comprehend his power. If we did, we would be shaking in our boots all day, every day.

Why should we pray to better know God? So we are filled with God’s fullness. As we are filled with his fullness, we see that everything in this life is temporary. We see that it doesn’t really amount to much when we understand God’s plan for eternity.

I pray we all seek to better understand God. I pray we pray for God’s will to be made known to us. I pray each one of us ask God to reveal himself to us so that we may be filled with his fullness. Seek to understand God’s will. Seek to see God’s power. Be filled with God’s fullness.

Ephesians 3:18-19 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Answered Prayer

Do you pray before meals? Many of us do. What else do you pray for before you do them? What do you pray for in the morning, throughout the day, before you go to bed? Do you pray much during your normal day or little? Do you believe God can deliver?

Praying is personal. It is time spent one-on-one with God. It is a time of pouring out our hearts—worry over health concerns, anxiety over what’s next, and requests for what we want or think is best. We gauge our pray successes by how God answers them.

Though we may not admit it, we believe our prayers are ineffective if God does not give us the answer we want. We may think our faith is not strong enough, which results in God denying our request. That may be true, but not in the way we think it is. Our faith can always grow. It is simply our faith is not strong enough to coerce God into giving us our desires. It is our faith is not strong enough to humble us to seek God’s will rather than our own.

Jesus tells us that we must ask our prayer in faith (Mark 11:22-24). He tells us that what we ask for will be done for us if we believe. This is where we often come to the conclusion that our faith is not strong enough when God doesn’t give us the answer we desire. We strive harder to make our faith stronger. Why? So we get what we want from God.

We are going about it from the wrong direction. Rather than trying to make our faith stronger, we should be striving to get closer to God, know him better, and get in sync with him. By doing this, our faith is increased, and our prayers are filled with God’s will. This is how Jesus was able to pray over the meager food available and God increased it to feed five thousand. Jesus’s prayer was the will of God.

I pray we all seek to know God better. I pray we strive to be in sync with God’s will. I pray each one of us pray in God’s will and witness him doing extraordinary things in answer to our prayers. Seek to know God. Strive to be in sync with God. Pray in God’s will. Witness God’s extraordinary answer to prayer.

John 6:11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.

Learning God’s Lessons

Are you comfortable in large crowds? Do you prefer being in a crowd over being alone? When you see people in need, do you have compassion for them? Are you prepared to demonstrate your compassion? Are you willing to feed the hungry? Are you willing to clothe the naked?

Large crowds can make some of uneasy. We may prefer smaller groups of people. Some of us may prefer to be alone. Being alone can be good for a short period of time, but we all need social interaction, whether it includes just a few people or much larger crowds.

We may feel sorry for people in need, but we may not feel true compassion, at least not in the way Jesus did. The compassion Jesus felt always caused him to go into action. He never felt compassion and did nothing. When there was a crowd of five thousand who followed Him, He knew they needed to eat, and His compassion drove Him to feed them.

Before Jesus feeds them, He tests His disciples. Have you been tested by Jesus? There are times in our lives when we are. God knows our faith. He knows how deep it is. He knows how wide it is. He tests us to stretch our faith, to grow our faith, and to show us he is much bigger and more capable than we give him credit for. That’s what Jesus was doing with His disciples.

As we respond to God’s tests, God shows us something new. The question is whether or not we recognize the lesson he is teaching us. Will our eyes be opened, or will we be blind and not recognize the lesson? The disciples saw for little, but soon forgot. They did not put it all together until the Holy Spirit came upon them. We have the Holy Spirit to help us. Therefore, we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal the lessons God is teaching us.

I pray we all recognize God’s tests. I pray we see and understand the lesson God is teaching us. I pray each one of us will depend on the Holy Spirit to guide us and reveal God’s will for us. Recognize God’s tests. Recognize God’s lessons. Rely on the Holy Spirit. Seek God’s will.

John 6:5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”