Day 15: Each Day

This week we've been digging into the line from the Lord's Prayer, "Give us each day our daily bread."  We've looked at the difference between seeking God for his hand and for his face, and Jesus' declaration that he is the bread of life...that His presence with us is our greatest need.

It seems so simple doesn't it?  And yet I find myself chasing after all kinds of appetites that the world says I should have.  Trying desperately to feed on food that does not satisfy and all the while forgetting that the true manna that sustains and satisfies has already been given to me.   

A.W. Tozer once said, "It is a solemn thing and no small scandal in the Kingdom, to see God’s children starving while actually seated at the Father’s table." And we see that so often today; starving Christians. Those who have knowledge of the true bread of life, the presence of God with them, that which sustains and satisfies...and yet it doesn't seem to be "enough." We ourselves embody this on more than one occasion.

Imagine having a seat at the kingdom table: abundantly laden with love, peace, joy, hope. And yet there we sit starving; failing marriages, high anxiety, lack of joy and exhaustion from chasing after earthly acceptance and comfort. Never enough.

Yesterday we learned about Jesus as the bread of life. How he sustained his people Israel in the wilderness and the picture that give us of sustenance and satisfaction. I wonder if our problem these days is our society's distaste for the idea of "enough." Think about it, when does our consumer culture(here in the West at least) ever value the idea of "enough?" Rather, it's more we want; bigger, better, fuller...we are obsessed with our shortage and clambering for excess. We see this distaste for the concept of "enough" everywhere. It reveals itself in our homes, our closets, our garages and our bank statements. How does one live into the idea that Christ is enough when everything around you screams that there is no such thing?

The posture of this line of Jesus' prayer is countercultural. Rather than racing ahead and procuring more for the future, it is consumed with sitting in the knowledge that there is greater satisfaction than this world can offer. No matter how loudly it might proclaim otherwise. The one who chooses to be filled in this way...will never go hungry again.

About 23 years ago as a university graduate I watched the doors close on all the dreams I had for my life. All my best laid plans and ideas for my future fell apart and I was left heartbroken and hopeless. Starving.

All those years of watching my parents and grandparents start the day and breakfast with the Word of God must've taken root, because I found myself running to the scriptures for comfort. I can honestly say it was the only thing that helped me from being completely overwhelmed by panic and despair in that season. I whispered verses in the daytime as my new reality assaulted me and at night when the darkness illuminated everything I had lost. Something about repeating those words over and over formed me. 

"The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition present your requests to God."*

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our trouble so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of trouble, through the comfort we ourselves have received from God..."**

And the one that found its way, scrawled with smelly markers, onto a piece of paper that hung on my bedroom wall for years until it was tucked deep into a box of other treasured things. Even today I can whisper its words from a place of deep faith that comes from hearing and seeing and knowing without a doubt:

"Because of the Lord's faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say, 'The Lord is my portion. Therefore I will wait for him.'"

I remember those verses even today. They are seared on my memory and they bring with them both remembrance and celebration of the way God showed up in my life. Of the time I experienced him to be more than just someone else's hero in the stories I heard growing up. But that line from Lamentations 3 provides not only a backwards look at God's kindness, it has also become for me a beacon of hope beckoning me forward into days unknown.

The Lord is my portion. Therefore I will wait for Him.

He is enough. My portion. Friends, I write this because I have experienced it to be true. When I was empty and without hope and had lost everything that I thought would satisfy, I discovered what it meant for Jesus to be "enough." To trust him to provide what is needed each moment of each day. It formed me to believe that what I need more than anything else in life is for His Kingdom presence to come to bear on any and every situation. To follow Him, be with Him, know him and love Him. Each day.

I can't pass on this experience to you in a way that it will actually form you. I can only stand as a witness to what I have come to see and know as true and point you in the same direction as I continue to stumble forward. And I can encourage you that as you pray "Give us each day our daily bread," the LORD can and will do that. Even when it seems like what you need is beyond His grasp. You might be surprised to find Him satisfy in a way you never expected.

I hope you'll read Psalm 63 with me today. In my bible this chapter is titled, "Praise God who Satisfies," and as I read it this morning I marvelled at David; certainly a flawed man but remarkably consumed with seeking God's face not just his hand...and all this before a time of knowing the Spirit of Jesus as God with us! As you read the cry of his heart try to identify everything that David "needs." Then see if you can observe the ways that David says the Lord Himself satisfies those needs. Linger over the lines of the psalm that speak to your heart today and bring new understanding of Jesus as daily bread, the one who satisfies.

The we'll pray together, take time to stop and fill in each line with the truths that God has revealed to you about Himself through each line:

Our Father...

In Heaven,

Hallowed be your name.

Your Kingdom Come...

Give us each day our daily bread

Present your requests to God, knowing that He is the "strength of your life and your portion forever." Continue waiting on the Lord to be your daily bread...to reveal to you how His generous presence can bring peace, love, joy and hope to your circumstances and the circumstances of those on your heart. Declare to Him your desire to know Him as your portion. Enough. Thank Him for his abiding presence that sustains and satisfies in ways nothing else can.

Forgive our sins as we ourselves forgive those indebted to us,

And lead us not into temptation.

Amen friends.

See you next week!

*Philippians 4:6

** 2 Corinthians 1:3-4