Sunday, October 19, 2014

October 20, 2014

“Give us this day our dailbread.” Matthew 6:11

Bread was associated with some significant events in Jesus’ earthly life and ministry.

When He was tempted in the wilderness following a 40 day fast, He was challenged to turn stones into bread. That indicates two things about Jesus: (1) He COULD have done it; and (2) there was a hungry human part of Him that wanted to do it! But He preferred being the Bread of life to having a bite of bread and He responded, “Man should not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from God.”

Of course, there were the two miraculous feedings – the 4,000 and the 5,000 – using just a couple loaves of bread each time.

There was the intimate final meal He had with His disciples on the evening before His arrest and subsequent crucifixion. Near the end of that meeting He took bread and broke it and passed it out to His disciples to eat it in commemoration of  His sacrificial death  – something He was preparing to do for them.

What does this mean for you? It means that because of Jesus, God understands your hunger. Having been hungry His self and having enjoyed feasts with His friends, Jesus understood and appreciated the importance of tasty satisfying bread! And, by feeding several thousands of people through supernatural means, He proved His ability to feed anyone who is hungry.

I saw Him provide for my family on three seperate occasions we sat down to eat with barely enough to go around. We had a partial loaf of bread and a mostly filled gallon of milk. Counting kids at the table against the number of slices of bread on the table we knew it would be close. Each time we said grace and thanked God for His goodness to us.

On one of those occasions, we were still praying grace when a knock came at the door. Going to the door my mother saw my Little League baseball coach standing with a stringer of freshly caught fish that he gave to us. We were amazed at the goodness of God to provide for us that way.

One other time we were about to sit down for a less than complete meal and again someone knocked on the door. When we went to the door we saw a woman from our church standing there with a box of groceries to give us. Again, my brothers and sisters and I had a visual example of how God could provide!

The third time, was even more incredible because the person who appeared at the door at precisely the right time as an eccentric neighbor who hardly ever ventured out of his house, but there he stood with bags of groceries for our family!

God, on those three dramatic demonstrations, proved to us that He would “give us each day our daily bread”! We learned to trust Him more!

You can trust God to give you your “daily bread” and take good care of you! He is “Jehovah Jireh” your provider!

As your Father, He cares that you have what you need. And as your God He has the power to make it happen!