Saturday April 13, 2019

[Krissa Lox]

John 6:26-27

6:26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

The Lord has no interest in being hard to find. He wants us to seek Him out and desire His presence. But His influence in our lives can be minimized if we're not seeking Him for the right reasons or expecting the wrong kind of results. God wants a relationship with us, not just a requisition or to-do list.

 

[ArcticFox]

I think this is also an excellent commentary on where to keep one's focus when seeking the truth. It isn't the miracles or any of that flashy stuff that makes the Gospel what it is. It's the actual spiritually nourishing message that we should be seeking and learning. Miracles come as they are needed, not to show off and not to "sell" people on the Gospel. If one just comes looking for the miracles, they've missed the point.

 

[Krissa Lox]

I think this is also an excellent commentary on where to keep one's focus when seeking the truth. It isn't the miracles or any of that flashy stuff that makes the Gospel what it is. It's the actual spiritually nourishing message that we should be seeking and learning. Miracles come as they are needed, not to show off and not to "sell" people on the Gospel. If one just comes looking for the miracles, they've missed the point.

This is a very good point, too, and something I've found in my experience that miracles tend to be for providence, not proof -- to fill in the gaps where the natural course of things isn't going to be enough to supply you in God's will, after you've already made the choice to follow after God, not as an incentive to your self-interest to "buy" your acquiescence in the first place.

With the loaves and the fishes, the people who were there to receive the miracle of the feeding were people who had already chosen to be there not knowing where their sustenance was going to come from. There was probably no advertisement of "Come join us in the wilderness; Meals provided," so anyone who was still there listening to Jesus at that point knew full well they were doing so at the expense of being able to meet their personal needs but decided He was worth the cost of staying.

 

[ArcticFox]

This is a very good point, too, and something I've found in my experience that miracles tend to be for providence, not proof -- to fill in the gaps where the natural course of things isn't going to be enough to supply you in God's will, after you've already made the choice to follow after God, not as an incentive to your self-interest to "buy" your acquiescence in the first place.

And yet, that's the attitude we so often find when discussing things with the folks who don't believe. "I believe in what I see, and I see no evidence of God." As if Heavenly Father Himself should appear to them and invite them to join, pretty please. Miracles first, faith after. Which is bizarre, considering that if you have irrefutable evidence, it ceases to be faith.