One Day at A Time

Matthew 6:11 “Give us today our daily bread.”

This is how Jesus teaches us to pray. He wants us to look to Him to provide for us on a daily basis. If this is how Jesus teaches us to pray, surely this is how Jesus desires for us to live - daily dependent upon His provision.

This is not new with God. When the children of Israel were rescued from the bondage of Egypt, God required them to depend on Him day by day as they journeyed through the desert. In Exodus 16, the Lord ordered His people to gather enough manna to sustain them for a day. Those who disobeyed found that the extra that they had collected had become unfit for consumption except on Saturday, when miraculously the manna was preserved for an additional day so the people could rest and worship.

This sounds like the easy life. Get up and trust God to provide. It is much easier said than done, but when it is done, life sure gets easy.

We have a gifted, giving schoolteacher in our area. She and her husband have already raised one set of children and God provided them another set. One was born to them and the other is a foster child they hope to adopt. They were seeking the Lord, doing everything they could to serve God and love others, when tragedy struck.

Just more than a year ago, this relatively young vibrant mother and teacher had a stroke. It was devastating to her and to her family. She said that every moment was a chore to get through. Through painful headaches and new physical limitations, she and her husband chose to continue providing the life their children needed. She did not allow her condition to stop her.

Instead of stopping, she allowed God to provide for her moment by moment. Soon, she found that she only needed him hour by hour. Today she is living day by day and regardless of how much better she gets, that reality is not going to change.

She has gained a greater insight into reality through this trial. What she has learned and what we all need to learn from her is that we are in dire need of God’s daily provision. We are to pray and live in constant devotion to God, trusting Him for His provision.

If you are like me today, worn out and weary and in need of God’s strength and peace, there is hope. The God of the Bible has called us to look to Him daily and discover His power to provide all we need to get through and grow into the people He made us to be.

“Strange and difficult indeed we may find it, but the blessing that we need is behind it.” — Streams in the Desert.