How to Successfully Believe Jesus is the Bread of Life

Satan tried to pull one over on me last week.  He was working overtime to lead me into discouragement and discontentment.  That sneaky devil put up a strong fight, and I still feel a bit scarred from the encounter.

I didn’t recognize I was in a battle till close to half-way through. At first, I chalked up my emotional state to being tired and stressed. I was feeling unsuccessful about accomplishing all I thought should be on my list.  Have you ever been there? It’s a tricky fence to walk.

John 6

One morning in my quiet time, Jesus revealed some issues that directed me to the heart of my problem.  Christ and I were reading a passage from John 6 during our moments together.  The subheading for the scripture was “The Bread of Life.”

Jesus and the Crowd

At the beginning of John 6, Jesus feeds the five thousand.  Later in the chapter, in verses 22-40, a sizeable portion of the crowd is hanging around to see what Jesus would do for them next. They are looking for “the magic.” In fact, Jesus says to them, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” John 6:26 (CSB)

John lays out some powerful truth in verses 27-29. Verse 27 begins with Jesus speaking to the crowd.

“ ‘Don’t work for food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.’ ‘What can we do to perform the works of God?’ they asked. Jesus replied, ‘This is the work of God – that you believe in the one he has sent.’ “

John 6:27-29 CSB

What Does it Mean to Believe?

I tend to see believing as just a mental assent but believing isn’t that simple. The actual Greek word is pisteuo and it means “to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in.” There are days I say Jesus is real and all He says is true, AND I struggle to place my confidence in Him. I’m reminded of the story of the father who tells Jesus, “I believe, help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24)

I began to think back through the week and realized I had been struggling through my daily yuck in my own strength. Admittedly, I was seeking to follow and serve Jesus, but my attitude was poor and that’s saying it kindly. I wasn’t confidently convinced Jesus was stepping in or that He even cared.

Living in Our Own Strength

When we rely on our own strength we wallow in discontent, circle continuously within our indecision, and gather a symphony of violins for a personal whine party. We react just like the crowd in verses 30 and 31; we look for God to perform a miracle and get everything back on track for us.  We are looking for “the magic.”

The crowd in Jesus’ day, and we today, want our senses overwhelmed so that believing comes easier.  We want what we perceive we need wrapped up with a Christmas bow and delivered in style. It begs the question: Do we want what Jesus can do, or do we want Jesus?

Jesus is the Bread of Life

Jesus is the bread, the source, the sustenance; Jesus, himself, not what Jesus can do or the miracles he can provide.

The Holy Spirit began to speak into my struggle.  He used my carb cravings of all things; He pointed out I was consuming carbs to make myself feel better. When I was overwhelmed, I would treat myself thinking I would be energized. If I felt discouraged, I would mindlessly snack as I tried to distract myself.  I wasn’t dealing with my real issues, I was allowing Satan to feed me lies, and I was eating them up. 

Jesus is our Sustenance

I honestly need to curb my carb cravings, but that wasn’t my central problem; I wasn’t relying on Jesus as my bread of life.  Christ wasn’t invited to be my ultimate sustenance.  I was aligning my belief with the crowd in John 6, and I was thinking if Jesus would just fit into my idealized parameters I could believe and trust Him easier. 

Who or what do you rely on to sustain you?  What is your go-to when life is hard? Where does your mind wander when difficulties overtake your day? Do you resort to outward things to encourage and strengthen you?

What do We Hunger for?

Four Steps to Rely on Jesus

1. Set aside our longing for Jesus to work His “magic.” We must stop demanding Jesus to miraculously fix our circumstances.
2. Come humbly to Christ with honesty about what we are hungering after.  We need to take the time to dig into our hearts and our thoughts deciphering what the real issues are and then we must bring them to Jesus.
3. Spend time in worship, prayer and reading His Word.  This is beyond our daily devotional time.  This is moments scattered throughout the day or week when we enter God’s presence desperate for what only He can provide.
4. Allow God to reframe our thoughts and fill us with a longing for Him regardless of the circumstance. It’s okay to ask God for healing, for provision, for intervention in our circumstances. And we need to let God be God.

All that God asks of us is to believe in Jesus.  We are to place our complete confidence in who He is and what He provides.  Christ alone should be what fills every need we experience. He is the Bread of Life, bread that can be consumed without guilt.

Hallelujah and amen!

I’m praying for you.

Bread Photo by Debbie Widjaja on Unsplash