Looking for bread in all the wrong places

Mindless snacking. Perhaps we all have a tendency to do this to some degree. I suppose it isn't too harmful if you're crunching on carrot sticks and not walnut brownie mix.

Sadly, we can even mindlessly feed junk food to our soul. A lot of times we hardly ever notice that we're doing this until a friend mercifully points it out. Those can be awkward conversations, but we all need people in our life who are willing to step into the awkward fray and bring out Isaiah 55:2 for our consideration. Friend, why are you spending your money on things that aren't bread, and working for things that don't satisfy? Eat what is good instead!

When Jesus meets people who are looking for bread in all the wrong places, he consistently points thirsty and hungry people to himself. He is the one who gives water from the fountain of life (John 4:14, Rev. 21:6) and he is the one who gives the food that endures to eternal life (John 6:27). This is no mindless soul food snacking-- Jesus is inviting us to a feast! The cost of bread in Jesus' kingdom is simply to be hungry for him.

Isaiah 12:3 says, "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." Our faith does the work of dropping our bucket into the well of salvation, joyfully drawing upon Christ for everything we need.

I love how John Calvin has carefully parsed out the implications of Christ's sufficiency in the packed-solid sentences below (I added some bullet points for fun). This quote from Institutes is worth a slow read.

"We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else.

• If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is 'of him.'
• If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing.
• If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion;
• if purity, in his conception;
• if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain.
• If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion;
• if acquittal, in his condemnation;
• if remission of the curse, in his cross;
• if satisfaction, in his sacrifice;
• if purification, in his blood;
• if reconciliation, in his descent into hell;
• if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb;
• if newness of life, in his resurrection;
• if immortality, in the same;
• if inheritance of all blessings, in his Kingdom;
• if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge.

In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other." (John Calvin, Institutes 2:16.19)

Perhaps eternity is an eternity long because we'll need that much time to drink our fill of the infinite perfections of Jesus.