Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." 

John 6:35 (NKJV)

The Gospel of John records seven times when Jesus makes this absolute “I AM” statement to reveal the beauty of His nature and character. Jesus uttered His first “I AM” statement when the crowd came after Him for the wrong reason.

Even after Jesus performed the miracle of feeding five thousand men (plus additional women and children), the crowd was still searching for a sign from Him to demonstrate that He was who He claimed to be. They wanted more bread from Jesus to satisfy their physical hunger. After all, when their forefathers were in the wilderness, they had manna from heaven to sustain them. Despite receiving manna, Jesus told them that their forefathers still died but He promised to give them the living bread (which is He Himself) that gives eternal life to all who believe in Him.

This powerful promise of Jesus shows us that there is more to life than just satisfying our own desires and wants. The demands of our felt needs (which appear to drive our materialistic culture's dominating values) often get in the way of our unfelt needs. This explains why we become so impelled to succeed and push ourselves to achieve more and risk burnout in the process.

Our unfelt needs are sometimes more important than our felt wants, yet they are not always obvious and are often overlooked. Everyone needs salvation, but not everyone realises it. By identifying Himself as the bread of life, Jesus is saying He is the only source of salvation for the world. This exclusive claim of Jesus actually startled and stumbled His disciples, and many left Him. Jesus did not make it easy for people to follow Him, but He had to tell them what it takes to be His followers.

It does not take a lot of faith but a lot of humility to follow Jesus. It takes a lot of humility to receive grace to be saved. It takes a lot of humility to stop relying on our own efforts to be faithful and fruitful. It takes a lot of humility to believe and trust in Jesus, even when we do not fully understand His word and His way.