This series of devotions are focused around Soren Kierkegaard’s “Christian Discourses etc.” The biblical text to consider during these devotions is: Matthew 6:24-34.
Therefore the Christian does not say merely that the daily bread is enough for him/her, in so far as it supplies his/her earthly want and need, but s/he speaks also of something else (and no bird and no heathen knows what it is s/he is talking about) when s/he says, ‘For me it is enough, it is from…God.” Like the simple wise man who talked constantly about food and drink, yet talked profoundly of the highest things, so does the poor Christian, when s/he talks about food, talk with simplicity of the highest things; for when s/he says, “the daily bread”, s/he is not thinking so much about food as of the fact that s/he receives it from God’s table. So also the bird does not live on the daily bread; it surely does not, like the heathen live to eat, it eats to live – and yet does it really live?
This understanding is vital for how we view all of life. To think that as we receive the food of the day – as simple as it might be – we connect ourselves to something greater than ourselves. This is no longer food…it is a gift. If the most mundane food…comfort food…soul food…everyday here’s-what-we-put-together-from-the-‘frig food is connected to God, what can that do to how we see other people…even our enemies. Everything and everyone is transformed when we consider its origin as being from the God from whom all blessings flow. That God is seen as the giver of our daily bread makes what is before us a banquet of grace no matter what it may be. In our society it would be good for us to consider the lilies and birds…consider what is enough…for we often are not pleased with abundance – we want more. In essence, you could say that we do not care for the God who we say gives us all things. We pick and choose and find satisfaction only in what we deem satisfying for us. What a far journey away from daily bread.
Connection: When we give what we have to others…share; we are a part of the giving of daily bread…a part of the way God gives to us all. Daily bread is like the stuff handed out at the feeding of the 5000, look what happens for everyone when we take a piece and pass it on to another – a feast for all!
Lord God, your abundant love graces us with the simple gifts of the day that sustain us and make us into faithful people who count on you for all things. Thanks be to you for all the gifts of this day that come to us either in scarcity or excess. Make us faithful stewards that we may life up our your gifts and use them for the well being of all for you call us your instrument of peace and healing of the world. Amen.
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