Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-33)
Our Father in heaven, God of perfect will, perfect plan, perfect purpose, it was the Lord Jesus who taught us to pray, Hallowed be Your name. Let Your kingdom come, let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10). And it was He who came to reveal Your will—stating clearly His mission, "For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38).
God who made us, You know our deepest hunger and our innermost needs. You alone are the source of life. Your will is to give us the true bread, the life-giving bread that alone can satisfy our souls.
Help us to look to You only—to fix our eyes, not on religious and civic leaders, but on the One from whom all blessings flow. Keep us from the confusions, deceptions, and distortions that cause us to render to Caesar (or to Moses) what is God's (Mark 12:17).
Father, You have placed within us that which seeks after You, that which recognizes in You the fulfillment of our desires, our hopes, our longings. We remember Your words to Your ancient people, You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13). We cry out in the words of the hymnwriter, Oh, let me seek Thee, and, oh, let me find! *
Lord, You are the God who told Your people Open wide your mouth and I will fill it (Psalm 81:10). Fill us, O Lord. Feed us with the true bread from heaven. Deliver us from the temptation to gobble things that pass for bread but can never satisfy. "Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy?..." You ask us in Your word. Help us to "listen, listen... and eat what's good (Isaiah 55:2).
Deliver us from the pursuit of food that spoils (John 6:27)—pride and power, profit and status, recognition and celebrity—the endless maze of addiction and accumulation. Deliver us from the maggot-infested bread of disobedience and rebellion (Exodus 16:20).
Thank You that Your manna—the bread of angels—the bread of God...that comes down from heaven...gives life to the world (John 6:33). Thank You that that life is everlasting. Thank You for the hope, the comfort and the reassurance in the words of Jesus, the true bread:
And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. For My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life... (John 6:38-40).
* Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart ~ George Croly 1854
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