931) There are many people who are fair-weather followers of God. When they need something, they turn to him. When circumstances of this life are over-whelming, they run right to God. When a loved one is desperately ill, they request prayers for God’s intervention. Turning to God during these circumstances can be a very good thing, but Jesus speaks to people in John 6 who only turn to God (him) when they are in need, similar to having Aladdin’s lamp rubbed so the genie can help.

In John 6, Jesus has just fed the 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and two fish. The people needed food, but after Jesus leaves, these same people come looking for him for more food and other things they want. Jesus confronts them, saying that there is more to having a relationship with God than simply asking and taking. Jesus said he is the Bread of Life, meaning that to be nourished spiritually, the people need to leave everything and follow him.

Because many of these people only wanted to be fair-weather followers, when they heard that having a relationship with Jesus would cost them everything, they no longer made the choice to follow him. Why? Because they knew they’d have to surrender running their own lives and making the choice to follow God’s blueprint for how they were to live. They knew this surrender will not be easy so they no longer wanted a relationship with Jesus.

The Sermon on the Mount tells us that there are two gates, two trees and two foundations. The only benefit of choosing to walk through the easy “gate”, eat fruit from an easy “tree” of rotten fruit and the easy “foundation” that doesn’t take much effort to build, is that all of them are easy. Jesus said you’d have to take up your cross, representing the most gruesome way to die, and follow him. Christianity is a relationship with God through all situations, not just when we need something.