You can find the video here - https://www.facebook.com/RichlandNaz/videos/211870093227638
Don’t forget to like and follow our Richland Church of the Nazarene on Facebook to be notified when we go live throughout the week.
Enough
March 21, 2020
Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV) “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
Probably the most famous prayer we have recorded in Scripture. If you grew up in church you memorized this prayer. It’s a teaching from long ago, the very words of Jesus as He teaches His Disciples to pray. And today we can learn how we should pray. It’s not just on how the Disciple’s should pray, it wasn’t just for them back then, there’s something in here for us today.
Today…now there’s a thought that we need to unpack. But to understand what is in this teaching for us today, we have to go back to then…and by back then I’m talking about the Old Testament.
Every Israelite in Jesus’ time had their lives wrapped up in the salvation story of the Exodus. You remember, when God lead His people out of slavery in Egypt?
Now think about this for a moment. A few hundred years before they were enslaved, the nation of Israel was saved from famine and allowed to settle in Egypt because of a young man who had been sold into slavery by his brothers. At first Joseph had a great job, he rose to be a significant servant in Potiphar’s house. But then he was wrongfully imprisoned. And yet he rose again to be the 2nd person in control of the country – second only to Pharaoh himself.
His brothers come for food for the family, and he does some tricking to get dad and the rest of the family there, and it all works out and they settle in Egypt. God saves the nation of Israel.
Fast forward a few hundred years, and the Pharaoh leading Egypt now, enslaves the people. And when Moses and Aaron show up things go from bad to worse. Pharaoh commands them to make more bricks than they had before, it was getting to be terribly hard on the people – unbearable. And the people were crying out to God, He had heard their cries. But before God led them out through Moses they had to endure some suffering.
And from the Exodus, they end up in the desert. In the desert some things happen, remember I said there is something in this prayer that is for TODAY - but to understand today we have to go back…and that is where we are in the story of God.
When the Israelites were wandering around the desert, God provided for them daily. It was called Manna. Now when we translate Manna from the Hebrew into the English we might not understand this word fully as we are not Hebrew children. The people of Israel actually ask Ma’n Hu? Which translates – what is it?
And when you read it in context it really means What is this ration? Here is what it was…it was enough for today. Remember God told them to go and gather only what you need today.
Hmmm…I wonder how hard that was for them. For us it’s not easy because we have pantries, freezers, refrigerators. We have bins and Tupperware and shelves. We can store food – more than what we need for today.
But what if God could speak to us in this time, this time right now, would He say to us that He has enough for each of us TODAY – not tomorrow, but for us to get through today? Couldn’t He also say that He is enough for each of us today?
We learned yesterday that Paul – in spite of his circumstance, was at peace with God and himself. Whether he took another breath or did not – all he wanted to do was to spread the Gospel, or Good News of Christ’s death and resurrection to put us into right relationship with our Creator.
It didn’t matter to Paul what happened next he knew that God was and is enough, enough for today.
And that’s where we get uncomfortable, OK – some of us are down right scared. Because this idea for us to pray to God give us our daily bread, means we are praying for God to give us enough to get through today - we will be fully dependent upon You.
Wow – fully dependent – that’s a lot to unpack. In other words the word for us today is that we need to be just as dependent upon God for our daily needs as the Israelites were for Manna. Are you doing that?
Think about it like this, to be as dependent upon God as the Israelites were in that time, we would have to go to bed with empty cupboards, freezers, fridges. Not a crumb left for tomorrow. No backup plan, soup kitchen, food bank, and we would have to trust that God will feed us again, enough for that day.
How do we do that? I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m saying that we need to be in the right mindset to be completely dependent upon God. We need to ask ourselves these questions, and we need to be honest about it with ourselves and God.
Do we really believe that God is real?
Does God truly care or love me?
Does He know what I’m experiencing?
Can I trust that God will give me enough, not an overabundance but enough for today?
The tension is this: we want to observe the miracle happening to someone else. We want to be a witness in the crowd, not the person who needs the miracle.
We don’t want to be the friend lowered through the roof to Jesus, or the lepers that Jesus heals, not even the blind crying out to Jesus as He walks by on a path.
We want to see the spectacle, we want to be entertained by spectacle, not the one in need of intervention.
And there’s kind of a problem with that because if we do not want to be the one in need of intervention, do we really want the Holy Spirit to transform us? And there’s the rub…
If we get right down to it, we don’t want to be dependent because we do not want to be transformed.
So when we say that prayer together, like we did earlier in my stream, and we get to that point of asking God for our daily bread, we are truly asking God for the opportunity to be fully dependent upon God so that He will transform us daily.
It is a risk – but not a risk that doesn’t come with a reward. You see when we are fully more completely dependent upon God, once you have let Him work in you, He will then also work through you - to touch the lives around you.
This time together – these devotions I’m starting – Coffee With Pastor Dan, is really a call to transformation. It’s a call to remember that God is truly enough. We can have hope, faith, and trust in God that His provision for today is more than enough.