Most times, I start with a story, but I’m just going to skip to the good stuff!
I was spending time with God this morning, reading Matthew chapter 6:9-15, and He revealed the most simple yet important thing to me.
Matthew 6:9-15 is Jesus giving, what we know to be the Lord’s prayer. You know, the one that starts with, “Our Father, who is in heaven…” For those of you who don’t know, Jesus meant for this to serve as a template for prayer. He wasn’t instructing us to say these specific words, although it’s also okay if you choose to say this specific prayer, especially on days when you don’t feel like you know what to pray for; saying this prayer is better than not talking to God at all. But I digress…
I’ve started reading bible commentary along with scripture. A commentary is basically an explanation given for the particular verse you’re reading. Commentaries are usually written by scholars, theologians, etc. I’m currently reading Tony Evans’ Bible Commentary.
While reading the prayer, I zeroed in on Matthew 6:11, “Give us this day, our daily bread…” This is Pastor Evans’commentary on the verse:
“Ask God to meet your daily needs so you can fulfill his plan. God doesn’t establish a program that he doesn’t fund…” (meaning, that God didn’t put us here to do his will without making a way for that will to be done). “Nevertheless, our requests for his provision are to be DAILY. This is a reminder that you are dependent on him all day, every day. Just as the Israelites relied on God to provide manna regularly in the wilderness, so you are to live your life in dependence on God – one day at a time.”
As simple as this is, I have always taken what this verse means for granted. I probably even took it literally at one point, thinking “daily bread” meant daily provision in the form of food, water, money, or whatever I needed to get MYSELF through the day.
But it means so much more than that!
Sure, DAILY BREAD refers to God giving us what we need to survive physically, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s also asking him to supply us with what we need in order to do HIS WILL FOR THE DAY!!!!!
I am so guilty of going through my daily life, focusing on my own agenda. Some days, I may wake up later than usual, and I think it’s more beneficial for me to get right to work than to take the time to pray, which is wild for someone who considers themselves doing everything for the glory of God. In light of this revelation, I had to stop and ask myself, “If I don’t think it’s necessary to talk to God on a daily basis, whose glory am I REALLY doing things for?”
God’s will for our lives encompasses everything from our big overall purpose to how we treat others and/or go about the most mundane things on a daily basis. But praying for our needs to be met daily so that we can do God’s will doesn’t mean God expects us to sit and wait for Him to tell us what the purpose of the day is. It simply means, “Yes, go about your day the way you always do, BUT pray for God to give you the daily provision you need to do the things He may place upon your heart along the way.
What does that look like,? Well, let’s say you’re a schoolteacher, for example, and you’re responsible for stewarding the education of several students. Your “daily bread” or provision could be God providing you with wisdom and compassion to help a student who may need it that particular day.
Or what if you work face-to-face with the public? Your “daily bread” could be God’s provision of more patience and an overwhelming capacity to love the people you encounter, no matter how much they tap dance on your last good nerve.
What if you’re a stay-at-home mom? Let’s say you have a million things to get done that day. Your “daily bread” could be God giving you that extra boost of energy when you feel like doing absolutely nothing, or even better, God could lead you to discover a brand new chicken recipe for your family on Pinterest, because let’s face it, there are only so many ways you can cook chicken before your whole family is ready to banish it from the household completely!
Again, this is so simple, but for me, it’s life-changing! In hindsight, those days I’ve gone forward, relying on my own will and strength to do things, have been very fruitless. Now I know why. I’ve been getting up to conquer almost every day relying solely on myself to get things done.
I now realize that something as simple as asking God to give me what I need so that I may carry out HIS WILL on a daily basis is what it looks like to rely on God and not on myself. I also realize how difficult we make our own lives and how much we put on our OWN plates when we are probably doing things God never meant for us to do in the first place.
God’s will for our lives on a particular day could be something as simple as showing kindness to someone we encounter in line at a grocery store. It could be something as simple as praying for the person who cuts us off in traffic instead of having a fit of road rage (Lord KNOWS I don’t have the daily bread on my own to do that!). These things seem small but we have NO idea how something so tiny could possibly save someone else’s life or even our own.
So friends, I know your day is already halfway over, but that’s the amazing thing about God. He sits outside of time. Therefore, it is NEVER too late to ask Him for daily bread because if you’re willing to be used, He could have an assignment for you on the way to the water fountain, bathroom, or even the dinner table.
I am so grateful to God for revealing this little nugget to me and even more grateful that I got a chance to share it with you!
A Girl's Guide To God 