I decided to skip our afternoon ministry today to rest and listen because I felt God laying something on my heart. I sat down with my iPad not knowing what I wanted to write about, yet I just had this urge that I needed to be writing something. Currently we are in Nkhotakota, Malawi and today is the first day it hasn’t been hot enough outside to basically make toast on the concrete. Speaking of toast, or more specifically bread, Jesus has been speaking something into my life lately about His “I AM” statements in the book of John. These seven statements are all revelations from Jesus that he is indeed the promised Messiah. This month Jesus has had me focused on the first of these statements.. “I am the bread of life.”
Maybe He first tried to say something with what we’ve been consuming for breakfast daily since our arrival. Every morning it’s either bread, toast, or some kind of hushpuppy-donut hybrid for breakfast (unless you’re on the lower end of the Darwin scale like Brooke and are gluten-free lol). Thinking about this now, it just seems like such a subtle hint at what Jesus has been trying to show me all month. It’s in John 6 that Jesus proclaims to be the “bread of life.” If we look closer we see that this is right after Jesus has just performed the miracle of feeding the 5,000. When the disciples find Jesus on the other side of the lake He immediately hits them with “do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” A few verses later Jesus is now preaching from the synagogue in Capernaum, and He proclaims “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” In this chapter, Jesus identifies himself as the bread of life while referencing that manna was not the true bread of heaven, but that He, the Son of God, is the true bread of heaven.
The second time this statement appeared was far more obvious. I just completed a devotional that focuses on the things the Word of God is, and one day the focus was on “Daily Bread.” Robert Morris likens daily prayer to eating daily. Think about it..when we miss meals we get weak, tired, irritable, and if you’re on X-Squad you get unnaturally HANGRY…Likewise, when we spend a day absent from prayer and scripture we can find ourselves spiritually weak and tired..not getting our “daily bread.” Some people do this for weeks, months, or years even. If we look at Matthew 6 Jesus even tells us to pray for our daily bread when teaching us the Lord’s Prayer. I fully believe this goes past physical provision, but also into spiritual provision. The Word of God is constantly referred to as “daily bread” in the New and Old Testament, and I believe Jesus is telling us to eat daily. “He provides all the nourishment we need, but it’s up to us to actually eat it.” I know for myself at least, that when I spend daily time in the Word and in prayer that I feel more spiritually in tune and hear from the Lord more frequently.
So now God has put this statement into my life subtlety and through devotionals, but of course there would come a way for it to appear in ministry as well. During our second week of ministry here in Malawi I was split off into a group with half my team as we went out to evangelize and help plant a local church. As we came upon what would be our last house I felt led to share something, but didn’t know what. I opened my bible, and where else would the pages fall than on an excerpt about the “I AM” Statements of Christ. As I preached to a group of around twenty locals I remember finally making the connection in my head that this was something God wanted me to remember. The statement of “bread of life” was so truly relevant in that setting as well. Watching the people of Nkhotakota struggle to have food to eat daily made the statement all the more real, and as I watched them hunger for physical food, it was even more obvious how much they hungered for spiritual food. Anyone who knows me knows that I can move through some food pretty quickly, so it’s my desire moving forward to crave and hunger for spiritual food more than I do for physical nourishment.
I wouldn’t say I’ve been the best listener this month, in fact it took me truly thinking I broke my foot (I promise I’m ok Mom) and participating in a food and words fast to stay home, rest physically and spiritually, listen and understand what I’m being told, and translate all of it into this blog. Clearly this is something God wanted to really center my focus on this month, and I can say I’ve seen quite the growth from leaning into what God has been providing. Getting my daily bread of prayer and scripture has brought me closer to God, my team, and this ministry. I encourage you brothers and sisters to seek your daily nourishment as well.
– Bowen (Bob or Bobby this month due to pronunciation)
