Give us this day our Daily Bread
Daily Bread: We are reminded of this in Exodus Chapter 16....When God's people were wandering in the wilderness. God provided them with food on a daily basis; bread from heaven, manna from heaven. They'd wake up in the morning and God would literally give them their daily bread. It would last for a day. They would depend on him to provide bread for the next day. They couldn't store it or save it, they needed him to provide it the next day and the next day. God gave them this bread daily like this to sustain their faith. Not just to satisfy their hunger but to sustain their faith. He wanted them to see that man does not live on bread alone, but lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. He was teaching them to depend on Him for their daily sustenance. This is what God has been showing our family the past 9 months! He wants our prayer to be this: Give us this day God our daily bread.
Now, to be honest we seldom, if at all pray like this. We live in a culture where praying like this makes -no- sense to us. We are so well off that it doesn't make sense to pray for our daily bread. We know we are going to have bread. We don't wake up each day asking God please provide food for us. But, this is exactly the problem. We are a people who have so much that we have grown accustomed to depending on our things to satisfy us instead of our God. And I'll be the first to admit it. We have fallen into this trap. God has been revealing this to us and showing us what it means to ask Him for daily bread.
It has been a hard lesson to learn and yet incredibly rewarding! We are two weeks away from getting on a plane, flying to Peru and starting a journey where we get to ask God for our daily bread. We must in a new culture where we cannot navigate on our own. I think God loves this! He longs for us to completely trust and depend on Him for all of our needs. We are discovering the true joy of trusting Him more everyday and it feels great!
In the beginning of this journey, we felt so helpless. We have never known a time in our lives where we couldn't control most of what was going on around us until now. God has been so good in preparing and teaching us what it looks like to depend on Him rather than ourselves or our things. Anytime we tried to place our trust in someone or something it wasn't there. There was no one to ask about being sent by a church as a missionary, no one to ask about how to create a budget for living overseas, no one to ask how to set up international insurance, bank accounts, vaccinations, housing, school in Peru and the list goes on and on. It actually became hilarious after alot of tears crying out to God, "Please just give us someone who has gone before us in all of this!" And God would always whisper Deuteronomy 31:8 " It is(I) the LORD who goes before you. (I) will be with you; (I) will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” It was this verse that continued to deepen our trust and full dependence on Him. He is a good God!
So here we are, now commissioned by our church and two weeks away from moving to Peru. We have watched God take care of every detail more than we could have imagined. He has raised all of our funds in 4 months, sold our home in 2 months, brought people to encourage us, provided good homes for our 2 dogs and lavished His love on us every step of the way. We are nervous, overwhelmed and full of excitement waiting to see what God is going to do!! We are so humbled and privileged to be able to be a part of His Story! So humbled that He would step down from the throne of heaven to restore His relationship with us AND then invite us to join Him in accomplishing the work of His kingdom! That is our God! He is love! We are looking forward to the adventure ahead, knowing that our God has gone before us and continues to lead us each step of the way. We are clinging to His promise " Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." We want to ask according to His will. We want to ask Him for our Daily Bread. He is our Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. He is The Great I Am~
Now, to be honest we seldom, if at all pray like this. We live in a culture where praying like this makes -no- sense to us. We are so well off that it doesn't make sense to pray for our daily bread. We know we are going to have bread. We don't wake up each day asking God please provide food for us. But, this is exactly the problem. We are a people who have so much that we have grown accustomed to depending on our things to satisfy us instead of our God. And I'll be the first to admit it. We have fallen into this trap. God has been revealing this to us and showing us what it means to ask Him for daily bread. It has been a hard lesson to learn and yet incredibly rewarding! We are two weeks away from getting on a plane, flying to Peru and starting a journey where we get to ask God for our daily bread. We must in a new culture where we cannot navigate on our own. I think God loves this! He longs for us to completely trust and depend on Him for all of our needs. We are discovering the true joy of trusting Him more everyday and it feels great!
In the beginning of this journey, we felt so helpless. We have never known a time in our lives where we couldn't control most of what was going on around us until now. God has been so good in preparing and teaching us what it looks like to depend on Him rather than ourselves or our things. Anytime we tried to place our trust in someone or something it wasn't there. There was no one to ask about being sent by a church as a missionary, no one to ask about how to create a budget for living overseas, no one to ask how to set up international insurance, bank accounts, vaccinations, housing, school in Peru and the list goes on and on. It actually became hilarious after alot of tears crying out to God, "Please just give us someone who has gone before us in all of this!" And God would always whisper Deuteronomy 31:8 " It is(I) the LORD who goes before you. (I) will be with you; (I) will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” It was this verse that continued to deepen our trust and full dependence on Him. He is a good God!
Ashley, this is so incredibly encouraging! I especially loved the part where you asked for soneone, anyone to talk to who had gone before, and He gave you the verse about He, Himself being the One! I love it! He's doing something similar in our life lately too...I'm very excited for y'all! Can't wait to keep up with y'all, our real missionary friends!!!!! Praising God for His great plans and accomplishing them!!!
ReplyDelete