The crowd’s misguided seeking of Jesus in John 6:26 illustrates a massive problem in the human heart, in that we often aren’t even thinking about what we need to learn from Jesus, but are merely satisfied being full and happy and healthy in this life, which we are tempted to believe lines up with Jesus’ purpose. We often need great help in this area, which starts by believing that the word of God can reveal your motives. However, this requires being willing to affirm that God knows your heart better than you do.
This ability to judge the heart is a premier feature of the word, as taught in Heb. 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
It is important to foster a habit of seeking this kind of clarity from God’s word in order to repent from seeking Jesus with self-centered pursuits, namely asking God, like David does in Ps. 139, to examine our hearts to see if there is any harmful motive within because he is able to expose things about ourselves that we cannot discern on our own.