One On One: 100 Days With Jesus--Ministry YearsSample

Bread: The One who feeds us 

Maybe I won’t have enough . . .  We all fear it. Usually it’s about money, but it could also be about time or love or some other exhaustible resource. If we let it, these worries eat our lunch. Today we meet Jesus on a beautiful grass slope on the north end of the Sea of Galilee. It’s April a.d. 32, the week before Passover. This time next year Jesus will go to the Cross. 

Jesus just got the hard news that John the Baptist had been executed and He was trying to get some space to grieve and be with His disciples. But the crowds show up wanting more miracles. So Jesus turns their arrival into a lesson. 

Perhaps with a twinkle in His eye He asked His disciple, Philip, “Where can we buy bread to feed these people?” Philip’s home was just over the hill in Bethsaida. Perhaps he had connections? (Jesus already knew what He was going to do.) 

Philip, the meticulous one, now exasperated said, “A year’s salary wouldn’t be enough to buy bread for each person to get even a piece. We won’t ever have enough.”

And with that Jesus tells the disciples to invite everyone to have a seat at His table. He took the tiny lunch offered by a boy—and made it enough for five thousand hungry men and their families. The satisfied people all said it reminded them of the Passover story and how God fed them with manna, enough for each day for 40 years. 

When the meal was over, the disciples, gathered what was left—12 baskets, enough for each one of them (in keeping with tradition that servants could enjoy the leftovers.) Imagine Philip, now with hands full, looking at Jesus. 

“I am the Bread of Life.” Jesus said. “No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry again.”

So why is it that we trust God to give us eternal life, but not our daily bread? Like Philip, we worry what we have is never enough? 

Take a seat at God’s table and let Him fill you again. When you’re fearful of not having enough:

1. Ask Him: what lesson are You teaching me in this hunger? Ask yourself: am I willing to receive what He gives and lack what He withholds?

2. Don’t hoard or withhold out of fear. Remember the 12 baskets left over. This is not a lesson to how to get along with less or how to live more simply. It’s the opposite—ask the Lord to show you how to live more abundantly in Christ. How to go deeper. How to press on to all God has for you.

3. Welcome the opportunity to grow. Say, “Stretch my faith, Lord!” Say 'no' to the voices that push you with “wants” and “needs” and instead say ‘yes’ to what God wants to give you in this unique season. You don’t need anything He has not provided. This is the contented life.

We get hungry for more than food and thirsty for more than drink. Our souls need something that neither the world nor each other can satisfy. Only in God is our soul at rest. Only He offers the food that satisfies—the Bread of Life offers you Himself. 

Jesus invites you to His table, Come empty; leave full.

Tomorrow: One on one with Jesus, the One we hope for