We are used to praying “Give us today our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11) but we are not used to recognizing the answer and giving thanks for it. Most of us say grace at the table, perhaps, but daily bread includes all that we really need in this world. Do we believe God can and does provide that? Or are we like the Israelites who, when a “mixed company of strangers” came along, developed a whole new set of expectations? They were “greedy for better things” (Num. 11: 4).
Sometimes God wants to give us better things. Those who really have trusted Him receive His gifts with thanksgiving. The spirit of greed is not in them. Rather they ask for and accept “daily” bread—in abundance, if God sees that to be good for them, or in sufficiency alone, according to His loving-kindness.
Help me, Lord, to take today’s portion of food, possessions, joys, pain and Your presence, believing that is enough for me.
**Excerpt originally published in The Music of His Promises, p. 17.