DAILY BYTE
These are tough times economically. All of us, I’m sure, are painfully aware of the rising costs of food and fuel that are putting most household budgets under severe strain. For those who are paying off a bond, or a car, or have some other form of debt, the steadily rising interest rates over the past couple of years have really put on the squeeze. For most people, the levels of disposable income in their pockets today is significantly less than what it was a year or two ago.
According to the old saying - money talks. Unfortunately, all it seems to be saying right now is ‘Bye bye!’
In the light of this situation, I’d like to ask you this important question, “If you’re really feeling the financial pinch right now. If you’re finding that there’s a whole lot more month at the end of your money. If your bank manager’s moaning and your credit cards are groaning and you’re singing each morning ‘I owe I owe so it’s off to work I go’. Or if you don’t even have a job to go to or a stable source of income – the question I want to ask you is this, ‘Where do you go to deal with this?’”
In your mind, where do you go? To fantasies of winning the lotto? Or maybe in your mind you frantically chase down dark alleyways of anxiety until you hit the dead-end of despair. Or maybe your mind simply slips into the slough of resigned hopelessness and utter dejection.
In your behaviour, where do you go? To the bottle? To the casino? To shady business dealings that falsely promise a way out?
In tough times like these, where do you go?
The good news is that there is a compass and a map that Jesus holds before us that can help us navigate through tough times like these. A compass and map that point us to the One who is able to deal decisively with whatever it is that we are facing.
It’s the compass and map of the Lord’s Prayer that teaches us how to pray, and in so doing teaches us how to live.
Over the past five or six weeks we’ve been exploring this prayer in the devotions of the Barking Dog Collar. You may have noticed that up to this point the entire focus of the prayer has been upon God. Our Father, in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
This primary focus is important – for prayer and for life. Jesus is saying that our fundamental departure point in everything should be God – honouring God’s name; seeking God’s kingdom; striving for God’s will to be done. According to Jesus, when the point of departure is right, everything follows in its rightful place from that. Including our own needs.
In our devotions this week we discover that the first need of ours that is focused on in the Lord’s Prayer is our need for bread, for physical sustenance, for the material necessities of life. The more “spiritual” issues of forgiveness, temptation and deliverance from evil are still coming in the prayer, but first up – it’s bread.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
In tough times like these, this line in the Lord’s Prayer cuts through any religious mumbo-jumbo and touches us where it really matters. It’s the grace of God declaring that EVERYTHING about our lives matters to God and has a place within God’s loving purposes for our lives.
In our devotions this week we’ll be exploring this line from the Lord’s Prayer in greater depth. May these devotions point all of us to the One who offers real hope and strength, whatever the particular economic circumstances may be that we are facing right now.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Thank you Lord that there is absolutely nothing that can happen to me that is beyond your knowledge or your care. Amen
SCRIPTURE READING
Matthew 6:31-33
Do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the pagans who strive for all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
