“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Matthew 6:11, ESV
“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?”
Matthew 7:9, 11, Message
His miracles for us often require some responsiveness on our part. He truly supplies what we need–but from day-to-day. He doesn’t just deliver a “pallet” of bread every 2 months. He simply provides what we need, day by day, contingent on us asking. If we don’t ask, he won’t provide. But his ear is very attentive to our cry for provision.
The bread provided is a gift. We are of the impression that we earn our bread, we work for it. This verse simply and profoundly says that he gives it. Bread is an issue of his grace and kindness. It is something that is given. You might say that our bread is grace in wheat form.
We must learn to trust him at this basic need. We need food on a daily level. We really should be aware of this essential need. Your supper tonight is infused with His goodness. He was the provider. Someone else may have taken certain ingredients and enhanced your dining experience, but he made the provision to your table.
The definitive issue is the “day-by-day” factor. We must learn that this is the way our Father operates. We are compelled into His daily care. Grace comes to us with a day-by-day submission. That is not a bad thing. We simply surrender our wills to our Lord. We must keep coming to him, and asking.
A day’s portion, arriving a day at a time. It is a profound deception if we believe we can move beyond this. We accrue wealth and anticipate “protection” from the vagaries of a deity we can’t see. We want safety and security that is definite and solid. We feel that if we have worked long enough, and sweated enough, then we will eat well. It is our privilege.
And we have gone the extra mile, and have developed a “doctrine” that fits our decision-making process. Theology is important to us, and we try to develop something that will cover us and soothe us, and provide a maximum amount of coverage. However being his disciple is not like buying good car insurance. But we can’t shake a deep conviction that we have “adjusted” what is real and lasting.
The Father intends that we are to be reliant on him, exclusively. But that, to be perfectly honest, frightens us. (That maybe why it is done so rarely.)
Being a believer is something quite radical. It should affect us at the deepest of levels. We must insist on a way of thinking that propels us into the place of a simple faith. Our faith in our Father will always be day-to-day. We can’t think otherwise. If we try to make it otherwise, we end up in a deep confusion. The Father has insisted that we depend on Him.
Exodus 16 is the Manna Chapter. To always rely on God daily was for many to be an issue. When they attempted to get ahead, that extra would become rotten. If I remember right, the surplus manna produced maggots.
We come to Him hungry. That is the way he insists. Our stomachs may growl, but He will always provide all that we need. Always–our hunger for a day’s provision should move us into a place of grace. You could say we have a substantial need for His grace. He will always provide for his children. And we really do trust Him. (Or do we?)
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