Our Daily Bread. The Bread of Life.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” John 6:35

These words of Jesus in John 6 establish the sustaining significance of the Word of God in the life of a believer. John affirms the authority of the Word by penning these words in chapter 1, verse 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He continues to emphasize the significance of Jesus' words by saying in verse 14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

In other words, Jesus is the Word; therefore, when we spend time in the Word, we spend time with Him. When we spend time with Him by spending time in His Word, we are nourished by the bread of life — all powerful, all sufficient, never changing, never deficient.

If I'm honest, I don’t always take time to truly consume His Word. Sometimes, the moment I “put it in my mouth,” I'm spitting it back out on social media, liking it and sharing it more than I'm consuming it and allowing it to nourish me. I've barely "tasted and seen" (Psalm 34:8) before I want to be liked and seen.

He is the bread of life — our DAILY bread. Like the Israelites gathered manna, the miraculous bread of heaven, DAILY, we must gather our portion DAILY. His Word is “alive and active” (Hebrews 4:12), straight from His heart and His life to our hearts and our lives. Just like day old manna was foul and inedible, leftovers will never satisfy like a fresh, new, daily portion.

Spending time in the Word with the Word (Jesus) not only nourishes us, it fills us to overflowing, and can nourish others, too! When we daily open God's Word and let Him pour out a fresh word over us, we are able to receive it for ourselves and release it to others, because it’s a natural (or rather supernatural) byproduct. We not only read to regurgitate, we consume to cultivate.

When we realize the sustaining power of the Word of God by consuming it daily, we want to live it and give it to others every single day, too! And then we get to watch what the power of His Word can truly do!

{Image credit: www.kingarthurbaking.com}