I don’t just like bread; bread and I are involved.

It stems back to my childhood. I have already confessed to being a picky eater. That applied to everything except bread. If it was in bread form, I would eat it, even if it was a vegetable in disguise like the pumpkin bread my mother makes (which to this day is still one of my favorites). Picture Bubba from Forrest Gump listing all the ways to prepare shrimp and you might get a glimpse at what I mean: bread and butter...hot yeast rolls...crescent rolls....cake...cinnamon rolls...toast with jam...biscuits...Ritz crackers… I make the gluten-intolerant tremble.

So I don’t find it very surprising that thinking of Jesus as the Bread of Life was such an interesting topic to me during the Finding I Am study.

I’m a church rat. I’ve been attending a local church since I was one week old. Every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening throughout my childhood, that’s where I was. So this is not a new concept. I’ve heard all of the “I Am” statements, including this one, but for some reason it just clicked for me in a new way through this study.

Bread, for me and maybe for you, is a lot of things. Nourishing, necessary, satisfying, enjoyable, and occasionally in my childhood, life-sustaining.

So why is it so hard to think of Jesus that way?

Let me go ahead and publically affirm that Jesus, in and of His own person, is necessary, satisfying, life-sustaining, and enjoyable. However, He hasn’t always been all those things in my life because of the limited little Jesus Box that I have relegated him to.

So how does that happen?

Coming to Jesus for bread and coming to Jesus because He is bread are two different things. 

To do the first is to treat Him like a vending machine, putting in the correct amount of change (Bible reading, prayer time, and community service) and expecting to receive in exchange the exact bag of chips I have selected (good health, prosperity, comfort, and control).

The other is to come to Him first for satisfaction, to desire the giver not just the gifts.

But that gets complicated, doesn’t it? Do you start relationships just because you have a burning desire to know a person, or is there always an ulterior motive, something they could do for you – prevent loneliness, up your social status, provide needed support, make your work environment more tolerable? For me, that line is super blurry. Do I love my parents, want to know and be close to them because of them or because of all the things they’ve done for me? Did I pursue a relationship with my husband just because of him or did I think he was going to fill a gap in my life? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I want my husband because I love him, but I also want the things he gives me. Would I still love him if he stopped giving me love and affection? If he stopped providing and we couldn’t sustain our lifestyle? If he lost his sense of humor and couldn’t make me laugh anymore?

That also gets sticky when it comes to God. I definitely want Him to continue sustaining my life. Seriously. I definitely want Him to continue providing for me and my family. But am I just treating Him like a vending machine, or do I also actually pursue a relationship, a deep heart knowledge of Him?

Often in life, I think God places an area of need in our lives in order to meet that need. He uses those tough situations, those unanswered questions, those times when we are at our weakest to bring us to Him. We come for what He can give us – peace, help, answers, provision – but we stay because when we seek Him to get what we need, we still gain more intimate knowledge of the Need-Meeter. Lysa TerKeurst posits that we would never try to fill our spiritual hunger if all our physical needs were met.

In John 6, Jesus encounters this struggle. Right after he has fed the 5000, the people come to Him the next day, trying to see if He will repeat the miracle and feed them all again. They ask him for a sign, citing the manna that God gave to the children of Israel while they wandered in the wilderness. But Jesus gives a very unexpected answer:

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.”
“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:32-35).

Our needs cause us to desire the only One who can permanently meet our needs. TerKeurst puts it this way: “He is everything we need and so perfectly capable of filling in the gaps of our wants as well. We must let these truths seep deep into the longings of our soul. Otherwise lies are prone to creep into this place of desire” (Finding I Am, 81).

I know your mother probably told you (mine definitely did) not to fill up on bread, but in this case, you and I should take every opportunity to fill ourselves up with the bread of life. Instead of using Him, asking for more and more to meet our physical needs and wants, we should ingest and digest the truth of His words to become full and satisfied spiritually. No worries! The bread of life contains no gluten or carbs, so feel free to come and eat.

Are you a bread-lover like me? Are there things in your life you see yourself replacing the Bread of Life with? How do you keep a desire for Jesus at the forefront when it’s so easy to put the things He can give us first? 

Tell us your thoughts. Leave a comment below!