Daily Bread

Psalm 105:3-5

New Living Translation (NLT)

³ Exult in his holy name;
    rejoice, you who worship the Lord.
⁴ Search for the Lord and for his strength;
    continually seek him.
⁵ Remember the wonders he has performed,
    his miracles, and the rulings he has given,

The Lord is reminding me daily of the importance of "continually seeking him."  So many times we have so much going on around us that our times with the Lord seem to be moved to the back burner.  If we have time we may read or pray for a few minutes at the end of the day, if not we push it farther down the calendar until often times we go weeks without spending time in the word or in the presence of God.  I shared a thought a couple of weeks ago on Twitter that really stood out to me in reading through the Lord's prayer with my family.  Jesus said, "pray like this,"  and in that prayer model he instructed us to ask God for our "daily bread."  I am convinced more than ever that if I am going to stay near  the heart of God and stay in the middle of his plan for my life that I need to be searching for him and his strength continually.

In the body of Christ there are so many who are spiritually anemic because they are not being filled with the all-important presence of God.  In the same way our bodies begin to grow tired and deficient our spirits become weak when we fail to take in the proper "spiritual nutrition."  We need our daily bread in so many ways, we can't continue to grow and move forward if we are relying on yesterday's intake.

I know that we are busy, I know that we have schedules, but I also know how desperate we are as a people for the presence of Almighty God.  I think Bill Hybels says it best in this excerpt from "Too Busy Not to Pray."

“If you lower the ambient noise of your life and listen expectantly for those whispers of God, your ears will hear them. And when you follow their lead, your world will be rocked.”
― Bill Hybels

Let your world be rocked today by the all-consuming presence of God.  What you can accomplish when you daily relinquish control to him will be nothing short of miraculous.

Counter Culture

^{Hebrews 6:11-12
11} Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. ¹² Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.


-Spiritually dull and indifferent may sound like a common occurrence in the lives of most Christians.  There are most certainly times of peaks and valleys.  There are those moments when we feel as if God is close enough to touch, and then there are those times when we feel he is a million miles away.  


The truth in the words of Hebrews are some of the most poignant when it comes to the strategy of fighting those "desert" experiences in our walk with Christ.  It is easy to find ourselves discouraged when we look in the mirror and remember every spiritual flaw.  It is easy to feel dry and empty when we think of all of the disappointments that we have experienced.  The writer of Hebrews proclaims that to avoid these moments of being "Spiritually dull and indifferent" we must "keep on loving others as long as life lasts."


It turns out that the believer who takes the focus off of them and places it on others stays sharp and filled with vision to accomplish the things God has called them to.  If we want to stay strong we must go against the grain of our culture; they long to be fed, they want to boost their resume's, and they are constantly climbing to the top of the ladders of success.  The word of God says that to become the greatest you must become the least.  The word of God says that God opposes the proud but he lifts up the humble.  The word of God says if you want what is best for you then you can't constantly look in the mirror, but instead look in to the eyes of others.


Where are you looking today?

The Gift of Grace

Ephesians 2:8-9

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

The gospel is over-scrutinized, over-debated, and in many cases over-thought in many circles.  If you were expecting a deeply theological post surrounding the tenets of faith this might not be your cup of tea, but  the gospel is made simple by Paul in his letter to the Ephesians.  You were saved by grace because you believed.  It is no reward for the good things you have done, instead it is a gift from God so you can't take credit for it.

If you are anything like me you probably tend to compare yourself to others so you can feel better about your shortcomings.  It is natural, we don't want to be the worst, we don't want to be the most out of shape, we don't want to have the most inexpensive car or home, we often find comfort in the flaws of others.

What is so powerful about the gospel is that it totally breaks down the walls of comparison.  No one is greater, no one is stronger, no one is more deserving; instead all are on a level playing field as recipients of a free gift called grace.  You don't have to stack up, you don't have to be first in line, you don't have to be first in your class; in the eyes of God we all needed a remedy and it was freely given in the form of the person Jesus Christ.

If you are wondering if you are worthy; you're not.  If you are wondering; do I deserve the blessings of God; you do not.  This amazing grace is  a gift, we don't deserve it, and we can't earn it.  What I love the most is that no one can boast about it.  From the greatest to the least, we were all in the same perdicament, and even still God loved us enough to send his son, not as a reward for the "good things we have done" but as a gift.