The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Bread For the Heart"
When God answers a prayer for physical bread, He always works to provide far more vital spiritual bread for the heart.
"The bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst" (John 6:33-35).
Our bodies and other earthly aspects of our existence bear much significance, to the degree the Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself a physical temple in which He will forever live as a glorified man (without relinquishing His divinity). Thus, we obey His command to pray for "daily bread" and other matters of outward circumstance, condition, and situation. Always, however, we know the Spirit of God moves upon and within human hearts to address deeper and greater issues as He administers the Father's answers for earthly needs.
"The Lord looketh on the heart" (I Samuel 16:7).
"Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23).
It is difficult to imagine a more thrilling consideration about prayer. As we ask the Lord to provide a daily morsel of bread, His answer will bear not only temporal sustenance, but also eternal impact. His provision for the belly will influence the needs of the heart and our relationship with Him. We will likely not know that such grace occurs. However, the God who "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" wastes nothing of our requests, and even more, of His answers. (Ephesians 3:11). Every prayer answered in time will somehow bear an eternal glory of Christ that began when we sought our Father's provision about earthly matters as well as spiritual.
"I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him" (Ecclesiastes 3:14).
God supplies bread for the heart as He supplies bread for the belly. Perhaps this is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote that our Father provides for "all your need… by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19; emphasis added). Our Lord Himself comes with God's answers, providing an eternally enduring gift of Himself regardless of the outward nature or measure of His supply. Little wonder He calls us "pray without ceasing" and "men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (I Thessalonians 5:17; Luke 18:1). Great and wondrous things happen when our Father answers our prayers, glories we cannot possibly perceive now, and perhaps not even fully in the forever to come.
"As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all" (Ecclesiastes 11:5).
The incarnation of the Lord Jesus confirms how intimately and eternally God's Heavenly and earthly realities are united in His purposes. We do well to remember this as we pray. Our Father answers our requests by bestowals of grace that "shall be forever." Yes, answers to prayer for a morsels of earthly bread bear "the way of the Spirit" beyond all we can imagine as they serve to convey the eternal Bread of life.
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all twhat we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, orld without end. Amen."
(Ephesians 3:20)
Weekly Memory Verse
In Him we live and move and have our being.
(Acts. 17:28)
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