Oct 12, 2019 0
Not Saith the Lord
10-14-19
Some day I want to put together a new version of the Holy Bible. Ambitious, yes. But I believe that the Bible is a Book that many people know, but not everybody understands.
There is a human tendency to assume, to take for granted, things that largely are familiar to us. And you know what often happens when we assume. Familiarity does not always breed contempt… but it can lead to indifference. Hard truths, even when brilliantly expressed, can grow trite when we are intellectually careless.
My version of the Bible would be called the NSL Version – Not Saith the Lord.
If we can remind ourselves of familiar verses and passages of Scripture, and really – No: REALLY – think about them, and their meaning; their application to our lives… they can burst on our consciousness like thunderclaps. Sometimes as if we had never heard them before!
I know, because it has happened to me.
I will revisit this idea, going forward, and solicit nominations of verses and passages from you.
Here is one instance. “Give us this day our daily bread…” Yes, yes, “provide for me, please.” I think too many of us focus (if we focus at all as we rush through the Lord’s Prayer or the “Our Father”) on the “Give” and “us” and “bread” and what they represent.
But when Jesus outlined the perfect prayer, or topics to include when we approach God, I believe He wanted, in this passage, to remind us of the “daily.”
The Lord provides for us, we know and trust that. As with the sparrows, as with the lilies of the field. We seek it, and He indeed provides, spiritually as well as materially.
But how often does God provide? Not occasionally… not in crises alone… not only when we are desperate. But, daily. Daily “bread.”
That is not merely a petition of wanting, but is worded to remind us to be thankful that God does provide. Daily!
In fact, between spiritual and material matters, so much, so often, so “daily,” that sometimes we take His provisions for granted.
So when you next pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” you can remind yourself of how much more than bread He hath provided (and we “shall not live by bread alone,” right?). But have your mind focus too on His daily, constant, reliable provisions.
His gifts… before we know we need them! Indeed, great is His faithfulness.
Our daily “bread”? Be bold to ask… be grateful to receive. Thus saith the Lord.
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Click: Great Is Thy Faithfulness.
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