I am blessed to be in a small prayer and Bible study group that meets every Sunday morning. Everyone is in love with the Lord and everyone reads and thinks deeply about the bible. We are studying John’s Gospel, especially the “I AM” sayings of Jesus. One thing I am noticing about Jesus in this Gospel is His deep desire that we believe, believe in Him. Jesus says it a lot. In fact, I think a reasonable argument could be made that the purpose all of all of Jesus’ miracles of Jesus is precisely so that we have “belief” in Him. In other words, the real miracle of the feeding of 5,000 isn’t that Jesus miraculously fed so many, but the real miracle is that Jesus wants them to believe in Him, to believe that He is who He says He is. All of Jesus’ miracles are really about changing our hearts!
For example, look at chapter 6 when Jesus mysteriously shows up on the other side of sea of Tiberias or Galilee. Jesus just fed 5,000 people, then He walked on the waters of the stormy sea and brings His frightened disciples safely to the opposite shore. When the crowd catches up with Jesus they realize He could not have reached that place ahead of them, and so they ask Jesus: “Rabbi, when did you come here” John 6:25? Jesus answers their question by challenging them to stop following Him because He fed 5,000 people miraculously: “Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” John 6:27. So the crowd asks Jesus: “What must we do to perform the works of God” John 6:28? Then comes the miracle of all miracles, when Jesus says: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” John 6:29.
Dear friends, this changes the way we pray, does it not? And doesn’t this change how we ought to live? Instead of focusing on what we want Jesus to do in our own life or in the lives of others, what we need to pray more and more about is that Jesus change hearts, our own hearts, the hearts of others, and the hearts of those who are both causing and experiencing massive, needless death in Israel, Gaza, and Ukraine. Instead of taking sides, we ought to pray that our leaders in Washington change their hearts, believe ion God, and come together for the common good. We live in such a competitive, dualistic world, where we view everything as right or wrong, good or bad, moral or immoral, republican or democrat, Jewish or Palestinian, straight or gay, black or white, innocent or guilty.
How different it would be if we saw one another - and ourselves - as people in need of faith, people in need of believing in Jesus Christ, believing that He is who He said He is. ALL OF US!
Reflect on this today and make this your prayer today.
Lord Jesus Christ,Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” John 5:24.
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” John 14:6.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life” John 6:47.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” John 3:36.
“I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” John 8:24.
“Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” John 6:29.
“But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”
John 20:31.
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