Daily devotion – A new way of looking at life!
Seeing Beyond the Bread
Matthew 16:5–7
“Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.’ And they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘It is because we have taken no bread.’”
Have you ever noticed how we often define whether someone is “doing well” or “really well” in life?
We say, “I saw so-and-so the other day—they were driving such-and-such a car, earning this much money… they’re doing really well.” Our measurements are almost always material.
When Jesus warned His disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, they immediately assumed He was talking about literal bread. They completely missed the spiritual meaning. This confusion happens repeatedly throughout the Gospels—Jesus speaks of spiritual realities, yet people interpret His words through a purely material lens.
A religious leader named Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, and Jesus told him, “You must be born again.”
Nicodemus replied, “How can a man enter his mother’s womb a second time?”
Jesus met a woman at the well and said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.”
She answered, “Give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
In John 6, Jesus told the crowd, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
Thinking He spoke of cannibalism, many turned away and followed Him no more.
Again and again, Jesus spoke of the spiritual realm, but people could not see past the physical world.
Today, Jesus’ desire for us is the same. He longs to free us from being consumed by the material world and to lift our eyes to an eternal, spiritual perspective.
It was this very shift in perspective that changed my life forever. When I step back and view life through God’s eternal plan, the storms and trials I face take on an entirely new meaning. They grow dim in the light of His glory, power, and eternal purposes.
Yet how easily we become tangled in the material realm—choked by fear, distracted by possessions, and weighed down by what we can see.
Many people count their blessings only in material terms and recognize only those miracles they can touch or measure.
But since only the spiritual realm is eternal, let us be people who look for God’s work not only in provision, but in transformation; not only in what He does around us, but in what He is doing within us.
May we seek Him spiritually as well as physically—and rejoice in the eternal work He is accomplishing in our hearts.