It's Ok To Love Bread!

It was an earlier than normal morning for me today. Our staff unusually meets from 9-11am on Wednesdays, but we are having a "rolling staff meeting" today. We are heading to LaGrange at 7:30am to tour a state of the art gymnasium that includes a high ropes course in the ceiling. I heard about it several weeks ago and thought it would be good inspiration for us as we continue planning here at Skipstone.

I want to jump back into The Lord's Prayer that we have been looking at from Matthew 6...This, then, is how you should pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

Today we get to a petition that we've all probably prayed many times..."give us today our daily bread". I know that around here, we are continuously talking about God providing "our daily bread". For me, I've always thought of this petition mostly as a request for God to provide the resources I need to get me through the day. I think that is a fair interpretation, but the more I have started asking questions, I think there may be a lot more being said in these six words.

First, what kind of bread is He talking about? Does it seem strange to you that we should be begging for bread, as though we are facing starvation? Just a few verses later here in Chapter 6, Jesus tells us "So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them." So is this a contradiction? Are we to beg God for provision for the physical? He says that He already knows we need these things.

I think what has happened for me goes right back to my ongoing battle with my flesh. I tend to bend this prayer in the direction of provision, because my flesh is always crying out for my comfort. I think the bread that Jesus is speaking of is the presence of God. In John 6:33, Jesus is referred to as "the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Throughout John 6, the reference to Jesus being the "bread of life" is repeated several times.

So what exactly are we praying? We are asking for the presence of God to invade our life in a way that we are completely full, satisfied by His presence alone.

I think the word "give" is also a hint that Jesus was was talking about a different kind of bread. The reality is that we can go out and work and earn the money we need for physical bread (of course that ability comes from Him too), but we can't do anything to earn the bread of life, the presence of God. God knows our tendencies, so He put this word "give" here to remind us that His involvement in our daily lives is a gift that He wants to give us, just for the asking.

Lastly, I wonder why we need to ask for the gift of his presence "daily"? Listen to how Bob Hansel of Calvary Church in Memphis explained it "The Bread of Life, without which none of us can continue on—and of which God is the only source—is measured out one day at a time, ours to use or misuse in any way that we decide. We can try to keep and hoard it in a miserly narrow existence, or we can let it flow into and through us to touch and enrich the lives of others. It is a gift that intended for us to unwrap and discover with joy and wonder each and every morning, something to excite us with the ever-changing potential it brings for living generously and victoriously. That's the opportunity we're asking God to give us each time we offer this prayer that Jesus taught us."

That's good stuff... have you discovered the presence of God with "joy and wonder" lately?

Have a Blessed Day and Live For Jesus!

Whatever It Takes,
Chip