From Overwhelmed to Anchored: The Gift of Today’s Bread

I wanted to take this week’s devotional in about a hundred different ways. I actually got overwhelmed by it at one point. Should we focus on the metaphors of bread? Should we bring in the importance of Jesus' use of the unique word “daily”? Should we ponder the implication of our need to request the gift? It felt like a lot to pack into one short devotional.

Then, like a gentle breeze, the Holy Spirit seemed to remind me of what I was even writing about: just focus on today. The whole point of this section is asking God to give us what we need today. So it seemed appropriate to get vulnerable and share how I’m applying this truth to my life.

Todays devotional then is about something the Lord’s been teaching my heart a little more about each day. My prayer is that is encourages you too.

My husband and I have been dealing with various trials lately, both big and small, spiritual and material. It’s been difficult. Gently of the Lord, he also timed for us to be in the book of James (we’re reading through the Bible one chapter at a time).

That made me laugh a little. Of course God would do this.

“Consider it pure joy when you face trials of various kinds…” we’re reminded, right in the second verse of the first chapter.

In James 1:2-8, we’re exhorted to rejoice in trials because it makes us stronger in our faith in Christ. That said, we are also told to persevere in them. This means to submit to to the trials and allow God to teach us through them. James was well aware we can’t do that without wisdom, so he packs another punch in the next few verses. The remedy is simple he says, though challenging to walk out: ask God for wisdom. But there is an important key he shares: we must ask for it in total faith that God will give it. If we don’t ask in faith and trust God to help us honor him in our responses to the trials, we’re not going to receive his wisdom.

This means that we can’t worry through prayers or worry through our responses and expect God to give us wisdom too. It’s one or the other.

When I was 12  I started to ask God to teach me wisdom. I started reading James for the first time. I read with amazement that God would give me wisdom, I just had to ask and really mean it. I had to really trust he’d give it. I could see I would keep mucking up my life without his help. Without him, I’d make a total disaster of my life, relationships, choices- everything! The thing is, I’ve made a habit of asking him this same prayer since then. When we're trust God to give us wisdom, it means we're also submitting to his Word. This means we can't ask God to give us wisdom and then ignore when he speaks. If we think we're listening to him and yet ignoring his Words, we won't be truly walking in wisdom. How do we know if we're ignoring his Words? Ignoring God can happen in many ways, but here's what it looks like for me. It looks like not praying, not reading Scripture consistently, not being vulnerable and not accepting honest feedback from mature Christians. Briefly, I will qualify mature Christians here because we might have friends who are Christians but might not be intentionally growing in their faith. Their advice will likely be less aligned with someone who is actively pursuing Christ, vulnerable about their failures and thankful to God in their growth. Wisdom then means doing those things and trusting God to speak through them.

So to sum it up, in praying over this week’s devotional, I was reminded that asking for our daily bread is a way to ask him to give us everything we need to sustain us. He gives us the ability to open our eyes, the strength to get out of bed, the love to care for the people in our lives, the intelligence to read these words and do our jobs and of course, the wisdom to apply His words and persevere under various trials to grow in Him. He is the giver of it all. So this week, I pray as we meditate on Christ's words, that we’re reminded how generous, kind and good He is- and how trustworthy he is in every situation.

Once again, I want to take a moment to please join in our new Verse Mapping plan on the Lord's Prayer with our wonderful teachers on our Facebook community. Please check out our free and private Facebook community linked here: The James Method Project- Committed to Drawing Near