Celestial Vending Machine

As a kid at camp, the vending machines were great. We would save our money all Spring to have spending money for camp. We could get pop, or Funyuns, or chips - and some even got pork rinds, whatever those are!

I think we liked them because we could get whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Mom wasn't there. The counselor wasn't with us all the time. It was our money and we could satisfy our desires any time we wanted.

It was great!

Remember the feeding of the 5000 in John 6?

Jesus fed 5000 men, probably with women and children tagging along, with just a small lunch. Everyone was satisfied and there were leftovers. At the end, the people said, "This is indeed the Prophet who is come into the world" (John 6:14).

During the night, the disciples and Jesus cross the Sea of Galilee and the crowd looks for Him in the morning.  They had seen the disciples leave in a boat, but Jesus wasn't with them. There weren't any fewer boats, but Jesus was gone. A conundrum.

Somehow they heard that Jesus was on the other side of the sea and went after him. (Wouldn't that have been a great day to have a ferry across the Sea of Galilee!)

They came to Jesus and asked, "Rabbi, wen did you come here?" (v 25). They were still perplexed about how He got across the sea without a boat.

Jesus didn't answer their question, but revealed their hearts. "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves (v 26).

It was the next day and they were hungry again. They didn't want to gather more information about the possibility that this man might be the Messiah. They just wanted some of that good bread.

Where's the vending machine?

How often are we like that?

We pray for protection for our children. We pray for healing for someone who has cancer. We pray for comfort for a grieving family. We pray for a new job. We pray for...

When we do that we are treating God like a celestial vending machine.

We want something and want God to meet our needs on our time schedule and the way we want it done.

But what does God want?

He wants a relationship. He wants fellowship. He wants praise. He wants thanksgiving. He wants obedience.

We just want our desires met.

We need to change our prayers and our lives.