Our Daily Bread

The first request listed in The Lord’s Prayer is, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The most common understanding of this verse is something like, “Give us our three square meals every day so that we can live.”

Yes, that understanding is correct, but there is more. Jesus said that He is the Bread of Life (John 6:35). It’s Father’s will that we eat of the Bread of Life on a daily basis.

That means that we learn from His Word daily and that we hear from Him daily.

This is not to imply that we memorize a new scripture every day and leave it at that. Satan knows every verse in the Bible and can recite, non-stop, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, (plus the Table of Contents!) and he remains the most evil being of all creation. 

But, while knowing scripture is vital and critical, we must couple that knowledge with relationship. And relationship means communication. And God communicates every day.

Isaiah 50:4b says, “He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” Every morning, every day, God will awaken our ears to hear His voice. And the kind of hearing spoken of in this verse is hearing with an ear to learn instruction.

Think of all the things that we do on a daily basis such as: combing our hair, putting on clothes, washing ourselves, brushing our teeth, and so on. How much more important is it to listen to our Heavenly Father? We need to realize that it’s not that He isn’t speaking to us—He is! What we need to do is listen.

He speaks to us in many, many ways and we need to be alert to His voice at all times and from all sources. Here are three examples:

In Public Areas

Two men are walking the same direction on a sidewalk. An attractive and scantily clad woman walks past them in the opposite direction. Both men smile, but one of them turns his head to maintain the eye contact. He doesn’t see the curb and trips.

Wisdom speaks: keep your eye single and focused on the Lord. Resist the lust of the eye otherwise, you will quickly stumble.

In Nature

While walking in my backyard, I saw a beautiful, healthy, and tall tomato plant growing in the center of a gravel walkway.

The Holy Spirit said, “This is like those who have My anointing to become very fruitful in their calling, but are planted in the wrong location. Here, they will be trampled on, no longer bear fruit, and eventually die. But, if they are willing to be uprooted and planted where I want them, they will be safe and able to flourish. Know where I want you to grow and bear fruit.”

In Dreams

A man had a dream of his wife taking a bath. He was in the room and talking with her when suddenly an attractive stranger walked in and stared at his wife with very obvious desire. The man was shocked and angered. But what hurt him deeply was that his wife smiled back at the stranger.

The interpretation: “How you felt is what I feel when you look away from Me. It hurts me when you return the world’s smile.”[1]

God speaks to us daily. A very helpful aid that I highly recommend is to keep a diary of what He has said to you, even if you’re not sure it was His voice. After a while, you can look back over your entries where time, events, and maturity can confirm that it was His voice. Plus, you can see patterns in what He is saying to you (for example, maybe He speaks to you with a prophetic flavor).

It is my prayer for you that Father will continue to help you to hear His voice, and more and more frequently.

With God’s grace and in His peace,

Gary

[1] Adapted from, “Dream”, by Mark Rutland

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