October 21, 2010

Physical and Spiritual

John 6 is a great commentary on how we all think. Jesus feeds more than five thousand people from a few loaves and fish and then teaches on how Jesus is the true bread from heaven. It seems straight forward however the listeners seem to be completely lost.
They are missing the spiritual connection that Jesus is making from the physical miracle (he calls them signs for a reason). When they approach Jesus after the miracle he knows they are seeking him because he supplied their physical needs not because they are seeking spiritual life.
We do the very same thing. We seek after physical healing and help often going to Jesus as a genie to meet our needs. In giving we can think, "Lord, I'm giving this now and please bless me." While we know that He multiplies our gifts just like the loaves and fish we often expect the result to be physical as opposed to the spiritual. God knows we have both and cares about both but in this world we often care more about the physical.
Don't be afraid to ask God to bless us in particular ways, especially in prayer but let's not also be closed minded in expecting God to bless us only in physical ways. Often it can even be more a blessing to be transformed through difficulty into his likeness rather than lack transformation in comfort. We would do well not to be like the majority of listeners in the passage but be open to receiving spiritual blessings and not grumble when they are not physical.