Daily Bread

I was praying and thinking the other night, when the "Lord's Prayer" popped into my head. I started goingt through it in my mind (because as any kid who has grown up in the church, I have it fully memorized) and wondering, what did Jesus mean by each phrase.

Now, I could write several pages picking apart each line and explaining my interperetation, but there is only one specific line that caught my attention. One specific line that was an answer to prayer.

"Give us this day our daily bread"

When Jesus said this, he meant "give us what we need for this day."

He did not say "Give us today what we need for tomorrow, or next week, or next year."

It's called "daily" bread for a reason.

Bread could truly stand for different things for different people, but the point is, it stands for whatever ity is that we need. To one person that could mean comfort and peace, to another, it could mean a job, to yet another, it could literally mean food, a meal, a place to sleep for the night.

No matter what it is that we need, God will provide it for us on a daily basis. We can't try and pressure him into giving it to us on a long term basis, because it doesn't work that way. Just like when God provided the Israelites with manna from heaven in the desert. He sent it every day, so they could eat and survive. Problem was, if they didn't trust him and tried to save the scraps, the scraps would turn sour. They had to trust God completely with their futures, because they had no way to secure it by themselves.

That is what I need to do. I need to trust God that he will provide for me each and every day, what I need for THAT day. Maybe he won't tell me what he is going to do in the long run for my life, but I don't need to know. I can let God be unpredictable and surprise me. I'm not going to try to confine God and dictate what he can or can't do in my life. I'm not going to stick him in a box anymore. He can surprise me with what he is doing with my life. That's the beauty of it. After all, what would life be without surprises? If you always knew what was going to happen life would be rather tedious and boring wouldn't it?

So here's to the start of my grand new adventure of letting go of control, and letting God surprise me. =)

Give me this day my daily bread, God, and let your will, not mine be done. =)