![WORRY NOT! Words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, encouraging his followers not to worry about their worldly needs: “Why take ye thought for raiment [clothing]? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.”](https://www.goodnewskla.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/PHOTO-2019-06-30-11-59-03_1.jpg "lilies")
By Dr Edward Tamale-Sali
Dear child of God, we are continuing the above subject of God’s providence which we believe is very important for all. Good News has been looking at various aspects of God’s providence in the past editions. If this is the first time you are seeing this, I kindly request you to have copies of our previous writings on this subject in this publication.
You can get an old copy by calling our office. The contact numbers are on page two of this newspaper. We now turn to the section of what is known as the Lord’s Prayer that says: “Give us this day our daily bread.” The prayer to give us our daily bread is found in Mathew 6 and Luke 11.
It was mentioned by our Lord when He gave a template of how to pray. He emphasised God as the provider. When Christ came to ask for the daily bread, He expanded this from verse 25 to 31. In verse 28 to 30, Jesus gave an example of the lilies and grass of the world that was provided for, and even the richest man to ever live (Solomon) was never dressed as these natural things were.
He then paused and asked: “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?” (Mathew 6:30). In verse 26, Jesus had demonstrated God’s concern to even the birds.
The common bird is a domestic chicken. In African local homes, no one feeds chicken; they just wander in the same garden for years. In my life, I have never seen a chicken dying of hunger. When you release these chickens, they go out and come back home to sleep day in, day out with filled bellies. They become fat and you make them your food.
He cares about you
God is in the business of providing for all human needs. When Jesus taught us to pray that He should give us our daily bread, he wasn’t introducing a new divine measure. This is something the Lord himself had done to the human race for ages. The perfect example of God’s daily providence can be traced from the Old Testament when the Israelites were in a place of lack for forty years.
God’s provision of Manna every day in the desert (Exodus 16:4-12; Deuteronomy 8:3; John 6:31) was enough evidence of His commitment to provide. God cares about you for He has even already met your greatest spiritual need – forgiveness.
The Lord forgives you every time you repent. The provision of God’s forgiveness is almost a bread of spiritual life. His provision, however, does not stop there for He is even concerned with our physical needs. He is the bread of life (John 6:35).
To live under the care of Jesus Christ is to have life in abundance (John 10:10). Not only are we saved for eternity, but we also experience God’s provision in our struggles and material lack in the present. We seek Him daily, and He renews us day by day (2Corinthians 4:16). The branch is continually nourished by the vine and if all our cares are linked to Him, we will be continually nourished (John 15:5).
What our daily bread stands for
Bread can mean various things to various people from various backgrounds. Recently the Sudan government was overthrown and one of the reasons was bread that had become scarce and expensive.
Bread is a very important aspect for human beings. In ancient Israel, bread was almost everything. Jesus addressed Himself as the “Bread”. In the Bible, however, the general view is that bread stands for two foundational things: the first is our material needs and the second is the spiritual needs. Man has two essential needs: physical and spiritual.
Man has temporal and permanent needs. Today’s verse in God’s provision tells us that we serve a God who provides for us daily our temporal and permanent needs as long as we pray to Him. Give us today our daily bread means that God’s provision has been exercised in your life and on your behalf in the past.
It continues today in the present and the very God we worship will still provide for us in the unknown future. God is for us and what is only required for us is found in Matthew 6:33: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” This is the key verse that opens our provisions in every area of our lives. We shall dwell on this verse and go into details in our next edition of Good News.
