Today is Thanksgiving: a day of thankfulness spent feasting and in fellowship with others. A couple thousand years ago, Jesus made this remarkable statement: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53) This is a startling statement! But it is particularly relevant as we spend a day feasting and giving thanks.
On the shores of Capernaum, after feeding the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, Jesus’ words undoubtedly shocked His listeners. The crowds sought more physical miracles, but He gave them eternal truth. Some of His disciples grumbled, saying, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” (John 6:60)
And some even walked away.
What did Jesus mean by these words? Well, we know for sure that He was not talking about the Lord’s Supper because it was not instituted until a few years later. Jesus is addressing both the necessity of Christ for salvation (“no life in you” without it, but eternal life through it) and the necessity of Christ for our life with Him; that is, abiding and living in Him daily. Jesus is both the bread that gives us eternal life and the bread that sustains us!
A truly born again believer is transformed at the spiritual level when Jesus becomes part of our daily experience and becomes inseparable from who we are.
Picture a table set with a beautiful meal bought and prepared for you. The aromas rise, the colors tempt, and you imagine the taste. You might study the recipes and discuss the nutrition to have an intellectual understanding of every aspect of the meal. But until you eat it, that food stays outside you, offering you no strength. Eating changes everything: Nutrients enter your body, flow through your blood, fuel your muscles, and become part of you. Jesus uses this vivid image to explain what He offers us. We can know facts about His life, death, and resurrection—like admiring the meal. We can attend services or perform rituals, checking religious boxes. But without “eating” and “drinking,” that is, trusting Him completely and surrendering every area of our life to Him for our salvation—we haven’t experienced belief in a way that results in eternal life.
But once we surrender for salvation, we are eternally secure. We can never lose our spiritual genetics! But a newborn baby must have nourishment in order to thrive and flourish and well represent the family of Christ! Jesus said:
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)
The life of a true believer isn’t gaining mere head knowledge; it’s active ingestion. We trust Jesus like we trust good food—pick it up, eat it, let it nourish us. We invite Him into every moment, decision, struggle, and every corner of our life. He becomes our lifeblood, working from within: healing hurts, guiding steps, filling with joy, bringing us into service opportunities. We have an intimate union where Jesus animates every part of us—our thoughts, words, relationships, desires, and actions.
So when Jesus said, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him,” it means we are offered a personal, inseparable oneness with the Creator!
Remarkable, right?
Jesus uses the example of the manna God provided in the Old Testament to explain this further. In the wilderness, God sent manna daily. Try to store it, and it rotted. (Exodus 16:20) The lesson? You can’t live on yesterday’s manna. As born-again believers, if we are going to be spiritually and mentally healthy, we need to spend time each morning filling ourselves with Jesus. We cannot live on past spiritual highs.
Consider Samson. He feasted sporadically on God’s power—killing a lion, slaying 1,000 Philistines with a jawbone, toppling Gaza’s gates. (Judges 14-16) But between meals, he coasted on fumes. Neglecting his spiritual food led to: breaking vows, chasing Delilah, and drifting into major compromise. Inconsistency drained him until he was finally captured, blinded, and enslaved—his God-given strength gone. How like us! A powerful sermon last Sunday, a prayer retreat months ago—we run on fumes until we find ourselves on a road to nowhere and wonder how we got there.
Jesus taught us how to avoid running out of His power. In fact, He even taught us to pray in a way to engender daily dependence on Him when He said: “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11) He didn’t say pray for weekly or monthly bread; rather, daily because it keeps us completely dependent upon Him. Daily bread means morning Scripture, not as duty but nourishment, letting words sink deep. Midday pauses to drink in the peace of His presence amid the chaos. Evening confession, thanksgiving, clearing space in our mind for rest and for tomorrow’s feast. Constant and consistent prayer, worship, obedience, is like ingesting fresh manna.
Friend, if you are born again, you have been given a magnificent gift: The gift of God’s presence. Trust Him fully today. Start now: Read His Word, pray honestly, yield to His Spirit. Tomorrow, refresh. As you do, He will abide in you, pulsing life through every vein. In Christ, we have so much to be thankful for!
Prayer:
Dear Father, You sent Your Son, the living Bread from heaven, to be my daily sustenance. Today, I come hungry for more than earthly food. Help me not just admire Jesus from afar, but to take Him deep into my heart, my mind, my life.
Like the Israelites gathering fresh manna, I ask for today’s portion: Feed me Your Word, Lord. Let it nourish my soul, renew my strength, and become part of who I am. Forgive me for trying to live on yesterday’s miracles. Fill me fresh with Your presence.
Jesus, abide in me as I abide in You. Animate my steps, guide my words, heal my wounds. Make me inseparable from You—may my desires be Yours, my joys be Yours, and my trials handled by You. Give me this day and my daily bread, that I may walk in the Divine purpose You have planned. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
