4/7 John 6:35

³⁵ Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."

One of the many "I am" statements of Jesus in John's Gospel is, "I am the bread of life." Once again Jesus makes a radical promise to those who would come to Him. It's a claim that no one else would dare to make. When we see the biblical context, it is even greater. It was God Almighty who took care of the hunger and thirst of the Israelites during their wilderness journey to the Promised Land (Nehemiah 9:15). The way He met the need for food and water was a physical picture of God satisfying the hunger and thirst of our souls.

The prophet Isaiah wrote a prophetic song about the servant of the Lord, whom we now know to be Jesus. Isaiah predicted that when the Messiah comes, the people who follow Him will no longer hunger and thirst (Isaiah 49:9). Jesus is deliberately using the same terminology to declare that He is the Messiah. He is the One who can provide for the hunger and thirst for our souls if we will follow Him.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus promised that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness would be satisfied (Matthew 5:6). If we put that beatitude together with our verse for today, we see that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will come to Jesus and have their spiritual needs met to the satisfaction of their soul. Our souls have an appetite. It can be for the temporal or the eternal. It can be for righteousness or the abuse of created things. Has your soul found satisfaction in following Jesus? It will never find lasting satisfaction in anything else.

Consider: What does your soul hunger and thirst for today? A hunger and thirst for righteousness is a gift of God's mercy. Will you ask God to bless your soul with that supernatural hunger and thirst and then pursue it with all your heart?