The Bread Of Life

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.”

John 6:35

I sat across the long, elegant table from the wife of a high-ranking Thai official. She had invited me to talk for one hour to Thai women regarding their children. This powerful woman had called our missionary host the night before; the problem was that she would not say ahead of time what topic she wanted me to speak on. Was it how to help their children be more successful in school? I wondered. Did she have in mind something on encouraging their children or more along the lines of understanding children’s learning styles and gifts? She would tell me when I arrived at noon.

Normally I know the topic ahead of time and bring notes with specific points to highlight in my message. However, Chiang-Mai, Thailand, was thousands of miles from my office in Oklahoma, so I couldn’t run back and get a portfolio with a talk, and there was no time to prepare a new one.

The night before I was to speak, exhausted from more than ten days of ministry and suffering from a severe intestinal infection, I was beginning to be anxious and went to bed feeling inadequate and downhearted. Then I sensed the Lord’s quiet whisper reminding me, Offer the bread that you have. You may feel it is inadequate, but I am the Bread of Life, fully able to fill these women’s hearts as you share the life experiences and words I’ve given you. Don’t worry about anything. Just give yourself to me, and I will do my work through you.

Those words of life shifted my focus from my inadequacy to Christ’s sufficiency. The next day, as I opened my mouth to speak without an outline or notes, the words flowed for one hour. Afterward, the hostess hugged me and tearfully said, “I wish you were my mother. This was perfect, just what we needed to hear.” My heart filled with gratitude for Jesus, the Bread of Life, our inexhaustible resource.

Jesus, Bread of Life, thank you that you can do great and unexpected things using our simple, flawed gifts when we surrender them to you.

If you wish to be disappointed, look to others. If you wish to be downhearted, look to yourself. If you wish to be encouraged . . . look upon Jesus Christ.

Erich Sauer(1898–1959), German theologian and writer