Give us today our daily bread. (Matthew
6:11)
In
connection with yesterday’s blog about the solution being to come to know God
better, I’ve started reading The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer.
The blurb on the back of the book says that E.M. Bounds “was a lawyer, army
chaplain and pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He spent the last
seventeen years of his life reading, writing, and rising before dawn every
morning to pray.” You still know as much about him as I do. The book was
recommended to me and it’s been sitting on my shelf for years.
The first chapter is “Prayer and Faith” and I could probably write 10 posts about his five pages, but the point that most caught my attention. I tend to like to talk to God about ideas. When I pray for people, most of the time it is a prayer for a fruit of the Spirit. While those are good things to pray about and for, they’re also weasel-prayers. If God doesn’t answer, well – no harm done, maybe tomorrow, it takes time…. With these sorts of prayers, a person can go months, or even years, without seeing God’s hand or face. For me, at least, they are safe prayers.
“Daily bread” prayers are dangerous prayers. At the end of the day, you have either seen God provide, or you have not. If God doesn’t answer, people go hungry. The problem is that I am rich enough, and live in a place that is populated enough that my daily bread is as near as my refrigerator or only about a half a mile away at the nearest grocery store. It might hurt a little, but even with my bad knee I could probably walk it every day. As wondrous as such bread is, that really doesn’t impress me as being God-given. So, what is my daily need? What can I ask Him to provide that His failure would make a difference? What can I see Him provide, or fail to provide?
To the Jews, daily bread had to point back to manna, the “What’s-it” food from Heaven. I think that must be my prayer today. I fear this may be spiritualizing the matter again, but since I don’t know what the bread that I need is, “What’s-it” bread is that which comes from Him that will meet my need. How will I know whether it’s been provided? The Israelites saw the manna. They touched and tasted it and weren’t hungry any more. When I go to bed at night, I am often hungry. My belly may be full, but I feel as though I have missed something, failed in ten-thousand vague ways. I go to bed hungry.
This seems to be the place to stary: Father, give me today my daily manna.
The first chapter is “Prayer and Faith” and I could probably write 10 posts about his five pages, but the point that most caught my attention. I tend to like to talk to God about ideas. When I pray for people, most of the time it is a prayer for a fruit of the Spirit. While those are good things to pray about and for, they’re also weasel-prayers. If God doesn’t answer, well – no harm done, maybe tomorrow, it takes time…. With these sorts of prayers, a person can go months, or even years, without seeing God’s hand or face. For me, at least, they are safe prayers.
“Daily bread” prayers are dangerous prayers. At the end of the day, you have either seen God provide, or you have not. If God doesn’t answer, people go hungry. The problem is that I am rich enough, and live in a place that is populated enough that my daily bread is as near as my refrigerator or only about a half a mile away at the nearest grocery store. It might hurt a little, but even with my bad knee I could probably walk it every day. As wondrous as such bread is, that really doesn’t impress me as being God-given. So, what is my daily need? What can I ask Him to provide that His failure would make a difference? What can I see Him provide, or fail to provide?
To the Jews, daily bread had to point back to manna, the “What’s-it” food from Heaven. I think that must be my prayer today. I fear this may be spiritualizing the matter again, but since I don’t know what the bread that I need is, “What’s-it” bread is that which comes from Him that will meet my need. How will I know whether it’s been provided? The Israelites saw the manna. They touched and tasted it and weren’t hungry any more. When I go to bed at night, I am often hungry. My belly may be full, but I feel as though I have missed something, failed in ten-thousand vague ways. I go to bed hungry.
This seems to be the place to stary: Father, give me today my daily manna.
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