Lent 2023 day 12

 Daily bread

Our church has been fasting this past week.  5 days. Just as a discipline for Lent and to get us focused on prayer.   They put out a wee booklet which explains fasting and gave people the option of fasting from screen time,  treats and sweets, one meal a day or food for the whole time.

I struggle a bit with the ' fasting from stuff' thing.  To me, fasting is about food.  Principally because for Jesus it was about food.  But the thing is, in the times He was speaking food was a real issue.  People had to work hard for everything they had.  Lots of people were malnourished or didnt have enough.  People starved.  Drought and famine were real threats.  So praying for food for this day , every day, was probably high on everyone's agenda.  Even the rich and wealthy probably still suffered from food insecurity from time to time.  We, in general, never have to stop and consider that we might not have a meal today. And we are mostly overweight and overindulged with everything we need on tap.  So why pray for daily food?  Lets pray for daily needs instead.

I think most of us when praying ' give us this day our daily bread' in our heads are thinking ' give us this day the money to pay the mortgage or the rent'.   We take it as read that Jesus was using bread as an illustration of something that was a staple, a life-giver, a very basic necessity.  In our times that's money right?  And we also think forward to the time when Jesus says ' I am the Bread of Life'  ' Man cannot live by bread alone'  - so we spiritualise it to mean something slightly other than just plain Hovis ( other brands of bread are available 😊)

BUT

Two thoughts come to me.  1) if you were living in Turkey or Syria or Ukraine right now you might well be praying about your daily food.  At any moment our lives can be turned upside down by any number of circumstances and we might find ourselves without anything at all.    Probably most of you reading wont have had to turn to a foodbank in the past wee while, but I'd hazard a guess that at some point during Covid there were things you fancied buying that you couldnt get hold of.   Give us this day our daily loo roll!   We easily become complacent because we rarely feel ' need'.  But today God is speaking to me about shaking off the dust, being truly thankful for the food in my fridge and asking Him to continue to provide it daily and faithfully as He always has.   

2) Daily bread speaks of regular, consistent provision.  Not just a handout in a crisis.  How much do I really rely on God to provide for me rather than Tesco?   I have friends who are missionaries.  They have lived ' by faith' their whole adult lives.  They pray for everything they need and trust God to provide it for them.  There have been days when I know they have had absolutely no food in their house and no money in the bank and they have sat at their kitchen table and prayed for God to supply their needs.  And half an hour later someone has posted cash through their door, or stopped by with a casserole, or a bag of shopping.  They have hundreds of testimonies of God providing for them in every area.  As missionaries they travel alot.  They ask God for air fares.  Air fares always turn up - sometimes in impossible ways.  Its very challenging to have friends like that.!   I suppose Jesus was like that.  For three years He had no home and didn't know where His next meal was coming from.  He could have turned the rocks into bread but I'm pretty sure He never did.  He prayed ' Give us this day some bread to eat'.  And God did.

Today my challenge to you is to start to pray a bit more about your actual daily food.  Maybe we need to stop eating so much.  Maybe we need to eat more healthily.  Maybe we need to support local businesses and stop shopping at supermarkets.  God wants to be involved in the very act of our daily meals.  He wants a say in what we put in our bodies.  Our appetites shout very loudly ( which is why fasting is good) we need to learn how to turn down the volume on those voices and tune into God so that, if at some point in the future, we really do need to start praying for Him to supply each and every meal, we are well practiced at trusting Him.

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