"'Give us this day our daily bread' is probably the most perfectly constructed and useful sentence ever set down in the English language."

-- P.J. Wingate


From a dear friend, on this subject of daily bread:


Jim:

This made me think of you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2oi6y292kE&feature=related

Jason



Proverbs 30:7-9 (New International Version)

7 "Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:

8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.

9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

"The first call which every Christian experiences is the call to abandon attachment to this world. Earthly possessions (and even human relationships) dazzle our eyes and delude us into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety. Yet all the time they are often the very source of our anxiety. What He so gracefully promises and so mercifully provides is daily bread. And it is the joyful banquet of a surrendered life. And from that simple table, all good things become possible."

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in The Cost of Discipleship

We are called to an abundant life - not to produce it for ourselves (which defies our pride and performance anxiety), for it already exists and awaits us, but to receive, enjoy, and fully appreciate it. But to do so there are some simple rules to follow, and they are: 1) to remember Who the Source of that abundance is, 2) to put that relationship focus above all else, 3) to listen and obey at all times, and 4) to help, love, and share our abundance with others, vs. hoarding it for ourselves. This requires belief and faith, which includes action aligned with our belief. It's a real toughie for most.

We would rather battle things out for ourselves (than receive for free), whether with enemies (real or imaginary) or with those who we claim to love (even within ourselves). In fact, we just love playing tug of war with ourselves.

Give us today our daily bread.

9"This, then, is how you should pray:
'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'"

-- Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)

"Living on manna is a wonderful, yet frightening, journey on which we learn to trust God for our daily provision. It isn’t a journey we ever fully complete. It is an ongoing daily journey of praying again and again, 'Give us today our daily bread.' My wife and I had been in ministry just long enough to learn a few things and not long enough to learn what we needed to know most—that we didn’t know anything. . . .

And where the most difficult emotional decision comes into play is in the question, 'Do we trust God with tomorrow?' Can we really believe that just because He has provided for us today, He is going to come through again in the morning? After all, our very lives are on the line here! If God doesn’t come through, we’re going to starve and suffer terribly.

And so the temptation becomes real and vicious. We reason that it is wise to gather as much as we can, just in case God fails us. We enjoy provision. But we detest daily provision. We love it when God pours out so many blessings on us that we don’t have room enough for them (see Mal. 3). We just don’t like it when He pours out those blessings one day at a time.

This is at the heart of Jesus’ instructions. Pray for the ability to trust the Blessing Giver more than the (naively perceived) blessings. Enjoy the blessings. Praise God for the blessings. But never replace your trust in the Blessing Giver with a trust in the blessings you think you understand. This whole spiritual journey is about learning that we are safe regardless of the circumstances. We must learn that the miracles of God come in daily portions and that we don’t have to have what we need for tomorrow to know He is going to take care of tomorrow. We must learn the routine of trusting in daily provision. And trusting in God’s daily provision means refusing to focus on accumulating and then placing our greater trust in our reserves.

We are all severely tempted at this point. We discover God’s will for our lives and look at the risks involved. While we may never admit it, we ask the honest question, 'What if God fails me?' 'What will I need to stay safe if God doesn’t come through?' And then we start gathering the resources we need for our backup plan. And when we have finally gathered enough, we look at God and say, 'OK, now I’m ready!'

The problem is we aren’t really usable when we need a plan B to be safe. God can’t use us until we are willing to follow Him into the unknown. In order to use us to transform the world around us, God needs us absolutely dependent on Him. He needs us to let go of whatever crutches we are leaning on and shift the weight of our trust onto His faithfulness. Jesus is calling us to pray for a kind of faith that doesn’t need a pile of reserves before we are willing to begin the journey.

Whatever journey God is calling you to, waking up to His daily provision will either be terrifying or invigorating. A part of us says, 'Wow! Wouldn’t it be amazing to wake up and find manna on the lawn? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live every day experiencing the miraculous hand of God?' And yet, we must remember that to live that way also means being willing to go to bed at night with nothing left in the proverbial cupboards. The resources for today, as precious as they were, are gone. In the end, our money, our prestige, our energy, our abilities—all of it means nothing. And we have to go to bed tonight making a decision of faith: 'Do we trust God to come through again tomorrow?'

If we can finally break through to this spiritual victory and savor the prayer, 'Give us today our daily bread,' then the morning becomes something to anticipate rather than to dread. We don’t walk out the front door wondering whether God can come through again. We walk out expecting to see what new and exciting approach God will be using today to meet our needs. It changes the way we deal with adversity and scarcity. We are no longer at risk. We may not know how God is going to provide, but we do know He is going to do it.

If we are going to be able to make this spiritual transformation to living on God’s daily provision, we have got to make up our minds about what we want from God. How many times have we said things such as, 'If only I could see a miracle, I would believe,' or 'God, just show me a miracle and I will follow You.' We all want to see the miracles of God. We just don’t want to need the miracle. We need to recognize one of the major areas that keep us from truly embracing God’s provision: What we really want is to be entertained by the miracles of God when what we need is to be transformed by them.

We enjoy watching God perform miracles. We just don’t want to be the blind man or the leper. We want to stand on the sidelines where there is no risk. But we don’t want to be the lame man who lived for decades begging for food. We want to be a spectator in the grandstands cheering our team to victory. But we really don’t want to know the pain of need.

But Jesus is calling us to accept God’s design for our spiritual transformation. We can be entertained on the sidelines, but we can only experience God’s miraculous power when our absolute need for Him is revealed and we cry out for help. To pray for daily bread is to welcome every part of the journey God leads us through—even the painful parts. Those are the times when we look with expectation: 'God, what are You going to show me through this? How are You going to transform me? How will Your miraculous hand provide a way of escape here? How is my faith going to be stretched during these days in the wilderness?'

We must learn dependence for today. We must learn to trust God for tomorrow. And in this 'daily bread' kind of faith, we must learn that our need is simply the pathway through which God will deliver His miracle. If we are to experience His hand, we are going to need His hand. And so regardless of the kind of blessings He pours out on us, we must choose to trust God, not the blessings. We must refuse to allow our trust in God to be determined by the abundance of the provision. We must also refuse to curse God because we are in want. Instead, we must embrace our need for God, no matter how He delivers His blessings."

-- from "Living on Manna; The Call to Daily Dependence"

Man, do I know how to hoard things and protect myself. It was a well-learned survival skill, and it served me well as I gathered the things I would surely need after I destroyed everything doing it. I actually spent the first 20 years of a pretty impressive career working on that. My motto was simple and totally rebellious: "On Him, there's no time for waitin,' while I be busy accumulatin'." While on my knees in the total defeat and devastation that is inevitable (whether figurative or literal) when following that course in life, I heard Him say, very gently and supportively, "Are you done yet, Jim? Are you ready to start again, to do it a different way? Only this will be My way, that I designed to grow and teach you, to lift you up from the world's confusion and give you a life beyond your wildest dreams." And He wasn't kidding. And yes, some days can feel like this is what I'm getting to eat:



But that is not the truth of it; it is simply how it can occasionally feel to a poisoned mind, once I start the "looking around and comparing" thing, which is a real societal sickness. But when I simply listen and obey, waiting in joyful expectancy on Him, it's usually seen and received much more like this:



like yesterday, and thank You so much.