Exodus 16: 2-4, 12-15, 31; Psalm 78; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6: 24-35
Ephesians picks up last Sunday’s call from Jesus to come apart and rest awhile. The author warns: “do not live in the futility of your minds. That is not how you learned Christ…” Even when we rest, so often our minds keep racing, planning, comparing, evaluating. The Greek word for futility is “vanity.” In vain do we work and slave and save. God’s abundance feeds us. Ah, but we ask with the crowds, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus responds: “This is the work of God that you believe in the one God sent.” The work of God is to trust Jesus. We cannot save ourselves. It is futile to keep examining our spiritual life; it is vain. Jesus grows our spiritual life, and we are to rest awhile.
Perhaps you are one who can rest your mind, hold your plans loosely. Perhaps you can take one day at a time, one moment at a time. You can live in the present. Thank God for that grace and ask it for all those who worry, fret, lack trust in God’s abundance.
Let your mind rest now and ask to learn Christ more intimately.
Such a frantic, restless world we live in, as well you know, Jesus. Fill our hungry hearts and help us to nourish others, handing on your peace that the world cannot give.