Bread from Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

4th Petition to the Lord's Prayer.

With the current economic trends and all the debate over the billions of dollars in the new stimulus package, many of us are still unsure of what tomorrow will bring. Layoffs, unemployment,and economic slowdown still threaten those of us stuck in the middle. When will this change? When will the good times return? Or will they ever?

Like many of you, I think about these things as I go over my own bills and ponder how I will be able to afford college and all the stuff that is just around the corner for my family. In fact last week I woke up and could not go back asleep because my mind kept racing around all the possible scenarios. Worried, depressed, overwhelmed, and very tired I did the only thing that seems to help me in a time like this, I prayed. And as laid there praying, I made it the Lord's Prayer and stopped on the 4th petition, " Give us this day our daily bread."

There was the answer to all my worries that night. As hard as it is for us as humans, God wishes for us to trust Him for the things we need in life. As I pondered this petition I thought about the children of Israel in the wilderness. How every day God would send manna, heavenly bread, to them in the form of a morning dew. Each day the people would go out and collect just enough for the day. No more, no less. In fact if they did try to gather enough for the next day, the bread would become full of bugs and rot away. The lesson for us today is that God still provides us with daily bread.

The hard part for us is understanding the differences between what we need and what we want. In times like this God has a very gentle way of showing us the important things in life by literally taking away from us the ability to have extra stuff that are really just distractions. And ultimately pointing us back to the the best "bread" that God has provided. Which is not really bread at all, it's Jesus. Jesus calls Himself, "the bread of heaven." Manna from God to feed not the body, but the soul. It is Jesus and our faith in Him that provides all that we need in this life. As Jesus said, " seek first the kingdom of God and all things will be added unto you." I would encourage you this week to say the Lord's Prayer every night and as you come to this petition remember all that the Lord has given you to support your life and your soul with Him forever.