[Songs in the Night - February 7]
I am the living Bread which came down from heaven. John 6:51
WHEN our Lord declared himself to be the Bread
from heaven many of his hearers failed to comprehend
the metaphor, and said, This is a hard saying.
Will
this man give us of his flesh to eat?
They failed to see
that our Lord personified the truth, the great plan of
God which centered in him, the life which he had
come to give on behalf of the world, that we might
live through him.
To eat the flesh of Jesus literally
would have merely produced flesh, but to eat of him in
the sense of partaking of the blessings and mercies of
God provided in him, and in the sense of appropriating
his spirit and disposition, is the proper thought.
As
we partake of our Lord's qualities they become ours,
as we feed upon him in our hearts we become strong
in faith and in all the graces of his Spirit.
Let us then
daily gather our portion of manna and daily seek to
use it all, and realize that it will be our portion until
we reach the heavenly Canaan.
Surely then all the
supply of divine grace experienced by the Lord's faithful
should be stimulating to our faith and confidence in
him who has called us from darkness into his marvelous
light. Z'07-186 R4012:5 (Hymn 71)