Give us a list of what we are supposed to do for God and give us a sign so that we may believe were two demands the religious leaders made of Jesus in these verses: Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" ²⁹Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." ³⁰So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? ³¹ Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" ³²Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." ³⁴They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."  ³⁵Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” John 6:28-35

Jesus’ reply was profoundly simple: “The work of God is that you believe in me” and “I AM the bread of life!” Jesus had just fed 5,000 people; Jesus had just walked on water and they wanted a sign. What is IT! with people who want a sign of their own design? What is IT! with people who seek to elevate Jesus, yet control who he is? What is IT! with Adam and Eve who had perfection in the garden but thought they could add to that perfection by their actions?

What is IT! with us? The desire to demand a sign and then direct the giving runs deep in our core. Our craving to control our circumstances in order to create balance, perfection and wholeness has been passed down to us by Adam and Eve. We want to fix IT! according to our timing and vision of what needs fixing. Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened; Adam and Eve tried to fix their error by hiding from God. When that didn’t work they tried blaming one another in front of the holy God who knew exactly what had taken place.

God calls us to allow his word to help us identify and NEWK-IT!, that is allow his word to kill (explode, NEWK) our desire to control God’s work. God knows our hearts; he knows how hard we work to protect them; he knows how we work to protect our way of thinking about ourselves, about others and about him. When he explodes IT! out of our lives, life gets messy because we have to relinquish the rebuilding project to his holy hands, his word and his heart for us.

His reconstruction project begins by placing a clean heart within us. Then he reworks our minds, our lips and our actions. He steps in and says, “I will give you my mind, my words to speak and my actions to give.” He says, “You will stop the exhausting work of trying to fix yourself and everyone around you.” He declares, “You are being drawn to let me work in you, let me.” He says, “I want you to shift your thinking away from demanding God to give and focus on me, the great I AM, the great giver.”

May God grant us courage to open our eyes to the gifts and receive gifts from the giver. May God grant us boldness to proclaim his mighty gifts for us. May God’s peace rest on us and in us. Blessings IN Christ, Cindy

Your Subscription: