Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 28:7
Lord You are my strength and my shield;
My heart trusts in You joyfully, and You help me.
Make my while life a praise-song to You.
Amen.
Reading
In an echo of yesterday’s devotion, Jesus commanded the crowds, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life …” We won’t focus on the issue of our prioritising the things of God again today, however. Instead let’s focus on Jesus’ profound command in v.29, in response to the question,
‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’
Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the One he has sent.’
In the context of all this talk about prioritising the things of God, and living to please God, it would be easy to fall into a position of works-righteousness. This is what happened to the crowd. They thought that they would be capable of pleasing God through their good works. And perhaps pleasing God would get Jesus to change His mind and give them more miraculous bread?
But Jesus took them much deeper than that – to the place of faith.
Today the Word teaches us that will never be able to live a life pleasing to God unless we start from the point of absolute surrender and trust. It all begins with believing in Jesus enough to follow Him as our Lord and Saviour King. Without that, when God’s will takes us in uncomfortable or difficult directions, we will turn back. As God’s Word says, “The righteous will live by faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38)
It’s also important to notice that Jesus does not call for just any sort of faith, but “faith in the One He has sent.” He is referring to Himself, of course. God the Father sent Jesus to lead people out of the death of sin and into the life of righteousness; out of the death of separation from God (caused by sin) and into the Life of a Father-child relationship with God. But again, unless we have faith in Jesus (that is, unless we trust Him completely) we will not follow Him into this New Way of Life.
It all starts with faith. It all starts with trusting Jesus enough to follow Him, no matter where He leads.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will trust Him completely and follow Him wherever He leads.
- I will live my life in step with the One God has sent!
Holy Spirit, give me the gift of faith. Help me to trust Jesus 100% and to follow Him wherever He leads. Amen.
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