Preparing for Christmas #11: Bread of Life

   What is this?  When would we normally eat it?  We sometimes have bread for lunch or with our dinner.  There is a prayer in the Bible which Jesus taught to his helpers called “The Lord's Prayer” or the “Our Father.”  In it, we ask for daily bread (Matthew 6:11), and the word bread here means all the food we need to live.  In Bible times people ate bread more often than we do, and they ate it plain without butter or jam.

   Jesus calls Himself “the bread of life” (John 6:48).  That means He is all we need to live.  Bread keeps our bodies alive, but Jesus makes us truly alive, in our spirits too.  Jesus    did more than just say He was the bread of life.  Two times He fed thousands of people with one or two bread-and-fish lunches. (Mark 6:44; 8:8-9).

   Jesus came to earth to satisfy our hunger for God.

           

Prayer:

            Our Father who art in heaven,

            Hallowed be your name

            Your kingdom come

            Your will be done

            On earth as it is in heaven.

            Give us this day our daily bread

            And forgive us our sins

            As we forgive those who sin against us.

            Lead us not into temptation,

            But deliver us from the evil one.

            Amen.