John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

Seeing Jesus do miracles is seeing He is LORD. It is God showing Himself to us. I’ve always thought that alone was enough to believe. Apparently I was wrong. Note that in the end, verse 6:66 many of these that followed Jesus stopped following Him.

It is never my intent to dissuade anyone from listening to Jesus, for any reason. It is however a matter of self-examination to know why you seek Jesus. Is it because you see Him as Lord or is it because you want Him to ease your suffering? I do not have that answer for anyone but myself.

Jesus reveals some hard truths about why He came to earth and what was asked of those who would stand with Him. Some admitted those were hard sayings, some stayed, many left. The reasons why people stopped following Jesus are private and personal, just like why some stayed. It was personal.

Jesus introduced Himself to me decades ago. Fifty years later, thousands of passages read, dozens of pastors, teachers and theologians, I have to admit there is still much to learn about my Lord. I do not follow Jesus because of what He can do for me, nor for what I know.

Psalm 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

That’s me, the hope for tomorrow, that God will reveal Himself again and again. I get to see His mercy, His grace, His loving hand at work in the land of the living. He is God, He has shown Himself to me and that alone is enough for me to keep following Jesus.