Finding I AM – Bible Study Review
~ Today’s Scripture Art and Finding I Am book review were designed to help you find satisfaction and write God’s Word on your heart. ~
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I recently zoomed through the Bible study Finding I AM by Lysa TerKeurst. Lifeway.com had the videos available for free for a limited time – I love when they do that! Not only did I save some money, but it was a great incentive to not lollygag through the study. #summerissues
This Bible study covered the seven I AM statements of Jesus found in the gospel of John. More specifically, Lysa showed how understanding each of the I AM statements helps to fulfill the longing in our hearts.
Spoiler alert: Jesus is the key to any kind of satisfaction you are looking for. Life wasn’t designed to satisfy us. Only Jesus can bring that kind of fullness.
This study is for you if you’d like to learn how.
The seven I AM statements are:
- I am the bread of life. (John 6:35)
- I am the light of the world. (John 8:12)
- I am the gate. (John 10:7)
- I am the good shepherd. (John 10:11)
- I am the resurrection and the life. (John 11:25)
- I am the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6)
- I am the true vine. (John 15:1)
Since each of these statements is a study in itself, I decided to pick only one to share with you today. But I encourage you to get this Bible study and explore them all. I promise you will be happy you did!
Lysa started week 1 (of 5) in a place where most of us can relate – begging God for a “yes” to a long-time prayer, a deep longing of her heart.
While studying for this book she realized, “The instant fix I had been begging Him to give me would only benefit me in physical and emotional realms. It would have given me a temporary fix and a brief stint of relief, but it would never develop in me a permanent source of life from which to draw upon time and again. God was after so much more for me. That deeper place where God wants to ease the hunger of our souls can only be accessed when we are stripped of the cheaper, temporary sources of nourishment.”
That’s what we should be longing for: a permanent source of life from which to draw upon time and again.
Enter the Bread of Life.
John 6:35 (ESV): Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Jesus gives us something we’ve craved physically on a daily basis since the beginning of time. But He isn’t just any bread. He’s the bread of life.
The word that is translated “life” is not regular old physical life. The word in this verse means: possessed with vitality looking to the fullness of life.
Lysa explains, “Jesus doesn’t want us to just live with breath in our lungs walking around as a shell of existence. He wants us to have a rare vitality, experiencing the fullness of soul someone should experience when Jesus Himself does everyday life with us.”
She goes on to say, “That thing you’ve been so desperate to see come to pass? That unanswered prayer? That unrelenting ache? The cries you’re so afraid are unheard? The unyielding addiction? That unsung recognition Your unraveling hope? Those answers and the easing of that ache aren’t the source of finally becoming fully satisfied. They aren’t. And you believing this lie is a scheme of Satan to keep you in an unsatisfied place.”
But let me stop for a moment and point out that hunger in and of itself is not a bad thing. Hunger produces a need for provision.
God made us to need provision.
Physically and spiritually. Even Jesus had hunger.
Matthew 4:1-4 (ESV): Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
The tempter tried to twist the truth to Jesus. He does the same to us.
He tries to convince us to find provision in all kinds of places.
But there is only one “place” that will truly satisfy.
Only One.
The story of the Israelites gives us another glimpse into God’s provision. In Exodus 16 when their food ran out, they panicked. But God graciously provided manna – a new “bread” that came with only one possible explanation.
You see, God could have fed them any way He saw fit, but by choosing to rain the manna down from heaven, He was reminding the people that He alone was their Provider.
He became the answer to their need.
With that in mind, Lysa asks a really good question …
Do you think people would try to fill their spiritual hunger if all their physical needs were continually met?
Um, that would be a no for the Israelites.
Numbers 11:6 (ESV): But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
But we would neeever be like that, right?
Let’s look at the folks in Jesus’ day. Right before Jesus said He was the bread of life, He performed His famous fishes and loaves miracle.
Look what Jesus said about the people following Him …
John 6:26 (ESV): Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
We should pause and ask ourselves …
Why are we following Jesus?
Lysa answers, “Is it so that I can get something from Him? Am I like the crowds who simply want their bellies filled? Or am I coming to Him because He is Bread to me? There is a difference in coming to Jesus for bread and because He is Bread.”
Come to Him because of Who He is.
God made us to crave so we will always seek Him.
John 6:48-51 (ESV): I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Let Jesus satisfy and nourish your soul.
How?
It’s simple really … Did you catch it earlier?
Matthew 4:4 (ESV): “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
*My prayer for you is … that this blog will inspire you to open your Bible every single day to seek God’s face and write His Word on your heart – because HE’S the key to lasting heart change!
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