Hello and welcome to Daily Reflection with Aneel Aranha. Today is the 1st of May, 2020, the first day of a brand new month. I know you have gained a lot from these reflections all these months, but going forward I’d like you to benefit even more from them. So may I request you to go get your Bible, a notebook, a pen, and if you have one, a highlighter. After you have read the reflection, read the Scripture verse again on your own, and jot down anything that comes to mind. Whenever I quote a verse outside of the passage we are reading, highlight it, so the next time you come across the verse, it will remind you of what you heard today. In a few weeks, you will see how much this has helped you grow in your faith. And all it really took was five minutes more of your time. Okay? So, open your Bibles to John 6. We are going to reflect on verses 52-59. I use the NRSV, but it doesn’t really matter what Bible you use. The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. I love the Gospel of John. John has a very poetic style of writing that makes his gospel an absolute delight to read. And it is loaded with wonderful promises that God has made. The fifteenth chapter contains one of the most amazing promises among them. In it, the Lord Jesus says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” That’s John 15:7; please make a note of it. I remember being totally captivated by this promise because it seemed to suggest that God would do whatever we asked for. Kinda like a magic genie. “Ask whatever you wish,” he said, “and it will be done for you.” Awesome, right? However, there are conditions. We need to: one, remain in him; and two, let his word remain in us. How do we do this? Earlier in this passage our Lord says, “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit” (John 15:5). How do we remain in Jesus and how do we let him remain in us? Todays’ passage has the answer. Our Lord says, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood remain in me, and I in them.” Scripture says almost everybody left him then because they found this teaching too hard. Even today people find this teaching hard. But this is what it is. And now we come to the second condition. How do we let Jesus’ words remain in us? By obeying them. James writes, “Do not merely listen to the word. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and forgets what he looks like. “But,” he continues, “whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.” And the blessing includes God answering all our prayers. That’s James 1:22-25; please make a note of that too. Now, just for a few minutes, read all these verses for yourself, mark them with your highlighter, and write at least one thought that comes to your mind. And see how much you start enjoying Scripture. God bless you.
