The other day while driving through our small town I recalled the night Peggy and I came to be interviewed by the church we now serve.
We were not aware at the time that our decision had to be made then and there. It was an agonizing time, trying to decide what to do without our family, even our own children, with us to help us make the choice.
But we trusted that it was what God wanted. Everything seemed to indicate it. We chose to accept the appointment and have been blessed because of it.
What guided us were the words of God and the faith we were encouraged to have. It was not easy, and our faith can be challenging at times, but we need to avoid the distractions of being challenged by our faith.
Jesus has just explained that he is the bread of life and that his blood is the blood of salvation. How do those who heard him react? What does Jesus say about his teachings in verse 63? What challenge is presented in verse 65?
When we think of Jesus and his teaching we often think of the growing number of people who heard and believed and then followed. Few are familiar with this passage, a time when the teachings of Jesus were just too much for some to accept. They had difficulty accepting what Jesus presented. They allowed themselves to be distracted by what they could not fully understand. They could not trust, and so fell away.
There are so many teachings in the Bible that are easy to accept and easy to preach on. It is easy to hear the comfort of the 23rd Psalm. It is easy to hear Jesus say, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
But all that is taught is not easy to hear. All that Jesus taught is not easy to obey. But we should not be distracted by those things that challenge us, those things that confuse and confound us. We must persist in our faith and focus on our experience with Jesus trusting in his wisdom.
DAILY CHALLENGE: What can you do to remove the doubts you may have in your faith?
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