The Bread

Grab a cupper, take a pen and paper, and a prayerful heart.

Before we start, answer these:

What has God shown you of his character over January? 

How is your spirit? -  What is it yearning for? What parts of the garden need watering?

Be sincere and honest with yourself and God. Listen to what He is yearning to do in you.

Over January, I’ve been enjoying delving further into the Words that God has given me for this year. Firstly, ‘the handiwork of the secret place’; the mystery of Him and the amazing privilege we have of being able to be in communion with Him, behind closed doors (Eph 2:10, Matt 6:6).  For me also, the challenge to grow in loving others better (I’m not even going to begin referencing the plethora of reminders of this in His Word).  Over the short journey of the past couple of weeks, there are two things, which I think, are intertwined that God has placed in my heart.

The first one I am always working on. My pride. I truly struggle with my ego, in many things. Whether it’s having my ‘life together’, my Instagram, my morals, and the list goes on. And the second although seemingly unrelated, is to be humbly asking God for daily bread.

“Give us this day our daily Bread.” (Matt 6:11) This one-lined petition of the Lord’s Prayer is one of outstanding depth. Throughout the Bible, Manna, or bread is a symbol of (and sometimes literally) provision. When I think of provision, I’m likely to associate this with my bank account. But this is both physical and spiritual provision. The bread of Life (John 6:48).

God invites us to come to Him EVERY single day to humbly and specifically ASK Him for our spiritual and physical sustenance, for THAT day.

Why only for that day? And why do we need to ask every day?

The awesome thing about God is that He is the same yesterday today and tomorrow. If God provided for me yesterday, if He taught me something yesterday, if He spoke to me yesterday, there is not doubt in my mind that He will do the same today. But I don’t need to worry about tomorrow yet, as it says in Matt 6:34 “Therefore, no not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”.  I only need to worry about today. So, I am seeking Him for today. And He will provide. Every day, for the whole of our lives. The bread of life. We are miraculously and wholly fed every day. God is the real breadwinner of this Life, and we can’t trust anyone more.

For sure, faith is needed to be present today, and humility in seeking God for today, and not tomorrow or next week. But that is such a special point of growth and development in our relationship with God, and if we’re practising it every day, I do not doubt that the discipline that we create righteousness within all of us (Heb 12:10-11).

I’d like to point out that there are days where I feel like God didn’t provide my daily bread. I come home at midnight, entirely exhausted, having tried to stay positive during my day, yet my spirit feels drained. I realised this recently. Despite how I think or feel, God did and does provide my daily bread. He provided Manna to Israel despite their disobedience, and often the whining (probably what I do when I don’t feel like God provided my daily bread too right?). Jesus broke bread on the night He was betrayed, and said: “do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus, our Lord and saviour, whose body was about to go through the most excruciating process, remembered the real bread of life. Bread represents His body. Christ dwells within us, and we can walk according to His example every day. This is such a challenge for me, and an element of my faith that I enjoy working on. But I need to remember this, every day, and ask Him to give me my daily bread. Everyday.

Grab a pen and paper, and a humble heart:
 

What would you like to ask God for every day?

How would you love to see God grow and water the areas of your spiritual garden? Ask Him to give you the opportunity to develop and grow them today.

 Pray for a faith that asks for today and trusts for tomorrow, a humble heart and open eyes for his working in your life, today.

Love,

PB

The Lunch Box

In my experience, God has a pretty great sense of humor!

Through the way he works in love and joy, he improves our faith and proves his faithfulness. There have been a couple of key moments in my family life where God has not only proved his power and faithfulness but challenged our faith in him to be stronger than our faith in the circumstances of this world.

My family and I went 8 years without a secure home after moving from New Zealand to Australia because we believe God had lead us to. My parents became sick of always renting and being moved on. They believed God had said that He had a home for us and we would be in it by Christmas. That was in June. On the 17th December, we moved into our new home. 7 days before the given date!

This sort of ‘faith test’ – or demonstration of God’s sense of humor, as some might say – has happened multiple times over my lifetime and I always find my faith waning near the ‘last minute’ mark. But God has always come through. He is always teaching us a lesson of His faithfulness in all things and (hopefully) growing our faith to trust Him a little bit more each time. 

A funny thought popped into my heart a couple of years ago about faith and our never-failing father. It looked a little something like this.

A father and his three-year-old boy were walking through a park together when all of a sudden the little boy crouches down all excited, focused – and then perplexed. He points to a grasshopper in the grass and says to his dad,

“Daddy, why are the grasshopper’s wings like that?”

The dad’s response was simple: “They are designed perfectly so the grasshopper can fly, find food and flourish.”

Fully satisfied with a smile, the child continued walking in the park with his dad. I love this because it opened my eyes just a little more to what it means to have child-like faith. Faith that is fully trusting, knowing that the answer the Father gives is always the best one. It’s the faith that Jesus calls us to have every day.

We read in the Bible: “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.” Hebrews 1:11

God calls us to have child-like faith, and there are so many points in the Bible where we see everyday people putting their faith in our never-failing God, and plenty of points where people don’t. But this is one where we do. In all four gospels is the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5000. This miracle occurs amongst the devastation of John the Baptist just being killed, and Jesus and his disciples possibly retreating. I encourage you to read John 6 before we move on.

There are many people involved in this awesome story. Jesus, his disciples, approximately 5000 men (and their wives and children) … and the child who gave up his lunch. Whether forcefully or not, that little boy gave up his lunch to Jesus. This young boy who was ‘the least of these’ gave up what was quite possibly his only food, on a long journey, in the middle of nowhere. It’s quite a stark contrast to the disciples who said it would be ‘too expensive’ and there wasn’t any where to buy food anyway. They didn’t turn to Jesus, but a boy offers his lunch and now that the disciples recognised their inadequacy, Jesus tells them to feed the people.

This so eloquently points to God because the disciples knew it was not in their own power, but God’s. And so after thanking the Lord for what he had provided, Jesus performed a miracle that not only sustained, but provided food in abundance for many people as they simply followed him.

We read in this story: “When they had all had enough to eat, Jesus said to the disciples “Gather the pieces that are leftover. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of 5 barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.” John 6:12-13

That little boy didn’t know what Jesus was going to do with his lunch. But in faith he gave it up.

What’s in your lunchbox that you need to give to Jesus? Ask God to search your heart for things that you need to put your faith in him for. Now pass it to him. Surrender it, because our loving Father will answer you for he is a good Father. Whatever that answer is, thank Him for it because it’s a part of his heart for you.

Don’t put God in a box! He has GRAND kingdom plans for you. I encourage you to pass your lunchbox to him with whatever you have in it, to have a mustard seed of faith and watch him grow it in his power, watch how you will continue to grow in him, and watch how you can know him.

Have faith, he will provide – and thank him for it, for he is ALWAYS GOOD.