John 6:29 – Verse of the Day 4/7/14

Of all the miracles that Jesus performed, which is the most memorable to you? If the feeding of the 5,000 isn’t your number one, it is probably on the short list! It is hard to imagine how anyone who witnessed it could not have believed that Jesus truly was the Son of God. Jesus’s feeding of the 5,000 in the New Testament is very similar to God’s miraculous provision of manna and quail to the people of Israel in the Old Testament. It would be impossible not to believe in god after seeing him provide bread and meat out of thin air for so many years, wouldn’t it?

And yet, not everyone who saw God’s miracles in the Old Testament believed, and neither did everyone who saw Jesus’s miracles in the New Testament. Why do you think this is? It is tempting to think we would respond differently, isn’t it?

We are always tempted to think this way, but the reality is that we are just like the people of Israel, and just like the disciples – we naturally have very little faith (and that is putting it nicely). Among other things, this verse teaches us that faith is not natural – it is the gift of God. Spend some time in prayer thanking God that our relationship with Him depends on His faithfulness and not our own. Ask Him for the faith to believe that Jesus really is the bread of life, the only source of both salvation and Christian growth.