Give us this day our daily bread.
Matthew 6:11
Jesus said we ought to pray—Give us this day our daily bread. Martin Luther reminds us in the Small Catechism that daily bread is everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also said that we shouldn’t spend our days worrying about the future. He asks—Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And then Jesus adds—So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.
I read THE MESSAGE translation of the Bible once in a while. These same verses read--Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. (Matt 6:34)
I have been thinking a great deal about how wet this place was in April, May and early June. It just wouldn’t stop raining. Fields were underwater and it felt like they would never dry out. I know some who chose to do preventative planting because conditions wouldn’t allow for seeding a crop. Others slogged through and did what they could. Now we are at harvest and for the most part it has gone far better than many imagined given what we faced in the beginning.
This is how it is with God. For all of our planning and good intentions, we are only promised this moment. We find ourselves making decisions today based on the information in our possession at the time. Are all of our choices correct? Far from it. We don’t get perfection when faced with the uncertainty of the future. What do do have is a God who loves us, has promised us mercy, and blesses us daily with what we need.
I like the way the Swedish hymn writer Carolina Sandell writes:
Day by day your mercies Lord attend me Bringing comfort to my anxious soul. Day by day thy blessings Lord you send me Draw me nearer to my heavenly goal… I will fear no evil of the morrow, I will trust in your enduring grace Savior, help me bear life's pain and sorrow Till in glory I behold your face.
This day that the Lord has given to us is precious. We know all too well the things that challenge us yet even as we wonder about tomorrow, we trust that as God cares for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, so too, he cares for us now and unto eternity.
May the blessing of God’s peace and mercy be yours.
Pastor Kristin
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