Eat Yourself Fitter
Opening Prayer
Jesus, my Bread of Life, open my heart to Your Word today. Be my source of life.
Read John 6:25–40
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 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. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 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. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Take a moment to consider your spiritual diet. Is it producing the life and the likeness of Jesus in you?My wife needs to eat regularly or she gets grumpy (don’t tell her I told you that!). She eats to live rather than lives to eat! Spiritually, we all need to understand who it is who will sustain our life and allow him to fuel us so that we will not only live but also bear good fruit (15:8).
The crowd Jesus miraculously fed display a “live-to-eat” mentality of living. Rather than recognizing that the abundance Jesus produced from nothing signals the kind of relationship they could have with God, they see him as a resource for life, not the Source of life (26). Any gift God gives that becomes a greater focus than him is an idol and cannot give us life. Even God-given manna rots away (Exod. 16:20). Is there any gift, honor, ability or status that you have come to rely on more than its Giver?
The Jewish crowd fed previously on legalism expects to work for eternal life (28), but look at the way Jesus subverts the idea in verse 29. But while the bread of life is given freely it must be received (29). Each of us has to stand apart from the crowd and respond (37–40).
Apply
Is your view of Jesus based on what he can give you or who he is? Are there viewpoints you need to change today?
Closing prayer
The church is God’s bakery on earth! Pray for churches to bring the spiritually hungry to the only One who can satisfy them.
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2025 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.