By Ladi Ayodeji
The issue of daily bread is symbolic of man’s daily struggle for survival. From pre-historic times, down through the dark ages, till date, the critical issue of food (or bread) was at the core of man’s existence.
It remains so even today, despite giant strides in technology. Whether black or white; irrespective of creed, faith, religion, race or sex, the issue of daily bread has not, and can hardly ever be a closed case. It is daily affair; no man is ever rich enough to stop looking for money. Even those who are reputed to have made enough fortune to last a life time, still do not claim to have foreclosed the issue of daily bread, (or money) because somehow, their fortune still produce for them. Their bonds, shares, stocks or other forms of investment or securities still produce what is needed for financial comfort, including food.
It is interesting sometimes how physical things corroborate things of the spirit in their application of eternal truths. In the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples how to pray in a famous scripture called the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-13) Our father who is heaven,
Hallowed e your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil;
For your is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen (KJV)
Our concern here is verse 9: “Give us this day our daily bread”. It is interesting that the Lord Jesus asked God, the Father, to “give us this day (to day) our daily bread”.
Jesus emphasized that, this prayer must be said daily; for the bread must be eaten daily for the nourishment of the body. In man’s quest for daily bread, Satan often find it convenient to ambush man at this critical juncture. You will recall that it was by bread (forbidden fruit in this case), that Adam and Eve fell. Since then, a lot of temptation has come through man’s search for daily bread. So, knowing this beforehand, Satan tried to defeat Jesus by tempting Him with food just as he stepped out of the wilderness after 40 days fast.
(Matt. 4:3) But Jesus, the last Adam, was smarter than the first Adam. When Satan confronted Jesus and said to him. “If you are the son of God, turn these stones to bread”. Jesus answered him; It is written: “Man does not live by Bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”. (Vs. 4)
Here, Jesus quoted the Law of Moses in Deut 8:3 showing that it is not by the tangible food, shall man live. Indeed, there’s food for the body, soul and the spirit. The daily spiritual food that a proceeds from the mouth of God that Moses taught is the word of God; the spiritual manna. That word is Jesus, who is the bread of life (Jn. 6:48).
You need daily bread of the spirit to nourish your spirit. That bread is the word of God, which is the corpus of divine revelation called the Bible. You need to study it daily for guidance and divine direction. That is how you can know the mind of God concerning all things. (Ps. 119:105)
As you know, the food you eat today cannot sustain you tomorrow, so also the word you read or hear today can hardly be sufficient to nourish your spirit all through the next day. You need fresh word for each day.
Nobody ever gets enough of daily bread; no one can have enough of the spiritual manna (word) either.
There’s a word in season, there’s a word for the hour. There’s a word of knowledge for a present truth; and a word of wisdom for future revelation of a truth.
In the wilderness days, when manna dropped from the sky, God specifically told the Israelites to take enough manna for the day, they were not to save it for tomorrow, lest it got rotten.
In the same vein, you need fresh spiritual manna (word) today and for each day. That is the secret of a divinely inspired life; we are not to live by “bread alone”. We need spiritual bread (Jesus), who is called the Bread of life (Jn. 6:48) to have the fullness of life, God’s kind of life, called Zoe. The point here is, if we must eat daily bread to survive; we need spiritual bread, no less to survive, spiritually. Eat this bread today, drink from the spring that wells up to external life. (Jn. 4:14) You need it now and forever more, Amen.
*Minister-in-charge
Ladi Ayodeji Gospel Association, LAGA,
09059243004, ladibest16@gmail.com
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