Give us this day our daily bread… Matthew 6:11
What if the petition for “our daily bread” is less about supplies and more about supplication? An amazingly liberating discovery in prayer is one of the great blessings that comes to the Christian who cares deeply and wisely for a needy sister. At first we pray for her in solution-oriented ways. Then we learn to pray with her and this becomes a celebration of the fellowship God intends above all. When we wait on Him for daily bread with no car or job in sight, we learn afresh to hunger for our Lord Himself. The Bread of Life is able to deliver manna still. “What is it?” we may ask when His answers puzzle us at times. In time the seasoned saint simply calls it faithfulness.
What if human frailty leads to failure and the needy sister disappoints us or we give up on her? How wise of our Lord to add His caveat to the daily-bread petition: “…and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” This is not the pardon of salvation, but the provision of grace that purifies and matures the Body of Christ. (Part 2 of 2)
Comment: So, the long-ago plot of my involvement with the Hispanic Ministry at Hollywood Pres did thicken and make you wonder how the story ends. First, let’s go back to one of the Old English homilies from around 1175. “Hwa is thet mei thet hors wettrien the him self nule drinken.” We know it as the proverb, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” It’s true, we concur, but thankfully Oswald Chambers had this drilled into me: DON’T BECOME AN AMATEUR PROVIDENCE. Sadly, the couple who had taken over the Hispanic Ministry, got divorced. Our cheating husband thought to make himself look good by buying a huge black sofa and recliner, congesting the family’s “studio apartment” even more. When I visited with the wife, I noticed dirty dishes all over the kitchen and food left sitting on the stove. She called me more and more, not for guidance, but to air her mounting quarrels with their landlady.
These were my “neighbors” whom I had learned to love and serve gladly, but as my concerns grew and became heartaches, I needed to speak truth with love and press Christ home to them in more urgent ways. He then became openly hostile, and she began to turn a deaf ear to biblical counsel, no longer open to shared prayer. When my mounting stress level led to an emergency room visit, the Lord lovingly lavished His peace on me by releasing me from the relationship. It had run its course and led me to better grasp the reality of two familiar verses of Scripture. When Jesus sent out His disciples two-by-two, He declared, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet” (Matthew 10:14). “But Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet against them and went to Iconium” (Acts 13:61). I was able to stay put in my “City of Image” after I had an old neighbor recover from a broken hip in my home, but she drove me crazy for 9 weeks. Her crime? Calling me “doll face” day and night. It is always right to put out our welcome mat of costly giving, provided we avoid becoming the doormat of strictly “takers.” Matthew 7
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