Heavenly father, I pray that you would take my words and speak through them, take our minds and think through them, take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you. In Jesus' name we pray – amen. The healing service that we have this lunchtime is a reminder to all of us that Jesus is concerned with our whole well being, our whole person … body, mind and spirit and that it is his will that we all are made whole.
In our gospel reading today ... we hear of Jesus reminding those around about him that this is the case as he speaks about bread .. the crowd who had been fed at the feeding of the 5,000 had ate their fill and were looking for more. As So often this is the case.
Food … which we all need ...day in and day out.
In the israelite history God fed the israelites on their journey in the wilderness with mana which they needed to collect ...enough for one day.
In our world today we have storage cupboards which can house all sorts of food,
preserved in all types of ways … however handy that is for us its not the way the ancients did it...
The mana that God gave to the israelites went bad after a day … therefore they had to take what they needed and depend upon God's provision day in and day out …
We are called in our spiritual lives to do something similar … to pray as it is in the Lord’s Prayer ... Give us today our daily bread ... to live one day at a time... to tackle todays worries today, to give thanks to God for the blessings of today … to not worry about the future … but to live in the present.
Give us this day ...
When we are are going through difficulties … of whatever kind, when friends of ours are going through issues in daily life when we are worried, concerned, burdened … we are called to dependance upon God...
wether it be medical, relational, financial, practical, occupational … whatever the issue may be … we are called to depend upon him for the strength that only he
supplies. But actually its not just in the tough times … it is the times when we think we can rely in our own strength.
The Israelites quickly found out that dependancy upon God was all that they could do.
When Jesus declares himself to be the bread of life he is saying something very important … he is saying … I am the only one who can satisfy our deepest longings … nothing else can satisfy.
To this crowd who were looking to be fed he was the bread of life
Remember he also said that he was the water of life .. to the women at the well
He met people at their point of need ... and he still does it today
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