Give us this day our daily Bread of Life

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

If you think, in this verse, that Jesus is just talking about getting your "3 square meals a day," you're not thinking - or praying - deeply enough.

Remember when Jesus fed the 5000? A miracle of "daily bread," yes. But what did Jesus say to that crowd when they came searching for him the next day?

"Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed."

He rebuked the crowd for simply looking to fill their stomaches again (and for free) because they were missing the much greater lesson:

• God is actually always present to feed every need, solve every problem, cure every ill, redeem every sin, raise every deadened life to purpose and fulfillment.

So we too need to wake up and listen to this rebuke!

This verse of Jesus' Prayer is talking about so much more than just asking God to meet our daily human needs. Jesus is asking us to understand that the real "daily bread" we should be praying to receive is the Bread of Life, the Christ!

"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."

Humanity focuses on material food. Jesus challenges us to focus on our spiritual food. He knew that "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need." And though it may appear as bread and fish, it is the profound reality behind that which is vital to "eat." And it is a huge spiritual truth:

• When the Bread of Life - the Christ - comes to your conciousness, it will feed your heart, your soul, your thought with the ideas, intuitions, inspirations that you specifically and individually need to live and prosper.

Do you get this? Do you grasp that this daily Bread of Life is what makes you alive? that makes your life worth living? that inspires you to live and give and grow into what God is making you?

This Bread of Life is so much more than something you'd eat for lunch. It is your literal companioning with God, your individual communion with God, your at-one-ment with God, your "taste" of God, your actual experience of God!

And this True Bread feeds your need with an awakening! An awakening to understand that your life is His - Spirit's - likeness! That, as far as God is concerned, you are already complete, that the True Bread is already present with you, already feeding and nourishing you, abundantly satisfying you with the Love of God, with your individual experience of Him, with your spiritual sense awakening to what Divine Love has already prepared for you: fulfillment, completeness, satisfaction.

This True Bread is the Christ, Emmanuel, God-with-us. And God's Love for you is always made manifest in practical ways. But it is the cause - the Christ - that we must seek first, not the effect - the loaves and fishes.

And the cause is the Bread of Life, the Christ, Truth, our Redeemer.

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Yes! give us grace - the unconditional love of God - today! feed all famished affections - and we know Your Grace will also feed all the stomachs that go with them.

The completeness of our daily bread

"Give us this day our daily bread"
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

Give us this day our daily bread, our daily communion with God, our daily grace, our daily experience of His unconditional Love. That Love feeds all famished affections. ThatLove satisfies all our deepest yearnings. That Love supplies all our true need.

And being filled up full with the Love of God, we have the natural ability to reflect His Love to everyone around us. With our famished affections fed, we awaken to our right to love our neighbor as ourself - to reflect the unconditional love of God to all those famished hearts we see around us.

If our famished affections are fed, we can have no sense of debt or lack or burden of owing or being owed. Because God is awakening us to see that Love forgives all debts by proving there actually are none! Love awakens us from our false witnessing of others (or ourselves!) as lacking, as debtors and tresspassers! And when you receive the incredible Love that is the only source of real forgiveness, you begin to learn how to forgive - love- like God does. And all sense of others owing you vanishes.

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

There is no "you owe me" in the recipe of the Bread of Life! Instead God insists we eliminate that ingredient of a personal sense of indebtedness out of Life. God insists on being reflected completely in us, so that we may not only see others as God already sees them, but (usually harder) see ourselves as He sees us. And right this moment, God sees you (and everyone!) as debtless, flawless, complete, with every need supplied by - who? by Him. Always by Him.

"And lead us not into tempation, but deliver us from evil."
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

And once you've awakened to - glimpsed - your true nature as God's loved image and likeness, do you think you'd fall back into tempation again? Well, maybe. But it becomes increasingly harder, especially as you pray, really pray, the Lord's Prayer.

Praying the Lord's Prayer makes you much more aware of the lies of evil. Why? Because you are tasting your daily Bread of Life. You are tasting the Truth. You are learning what the real meal - the real deal - tastes like. And how satisifying it is. And what a contrast it is to the cheap junk-food evil seems to offer up.

And isn't this then how God leads you? Isn't this how God delivers you from all the Liar's lies: sin, disease, even death? By giving you, through the Lord's Prayer, a taste of your daily Bread, your daily communion with God, your daily experience of God?

And once you taste what God, Love, really is - taste that True Bread - and feel it feeding, awakening, and enlivening you, the contrast is so sharp that you can spot the trial, the temptation - the Liar - a mile away.

So "Give us this day our daily bread." Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections - ours and everyone's. And learn how that Grace forgives and teaches forgiveness, how God loves and reflects love in you, as you. And so know that God will always lead you from trails and deliver you from any sense of evil. Why? Because God actually is the only presence, the only power, the only glory of Life, Truth, and Love there ever was, is, or will be. God is not only over all, He is All.

And you know what? He loves you.

Amen.

God's will is already done

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.


What is God's will in heaven?

Have you ever thought about that? Is there anything opposing God in heaven? is there turmoil or strife or confusion or sin, disease, death there?

No. Because that's His kingdom, where He has complete authority.

Well then, what about God's will in earth? Does He have complete authority here too?

Yes.

And Jesus is showing us in this verse that His will - as it is in heaven - is ours to awake to right here where we are seemingly in earth.

So then, couldn't you also pray this verse like this:

"Thy will be done in me as it is in heaven."

Or how about this?

"Thy will be done in body as it is in Soul."

And consider "Soul" here as understood as a synonym for God. Therefore:

Enable us to know, as in Soul, so in body, God is omnipotent, supreme.

And isn't that where God lives? in heaven, in harmony, in the perfect Soul? and if we are His image and likeness, then can't we expect His will - His desire for us, His yearning for us, His prayer for us - to be absolutely perfect? absolutely heavenly?

Jesus is asking us in this verse of the Lord's Prayer to invite God's will for us into our heart and soul. To awaken to the fact that God's will is already done in you - just as it obviously is already done in heaven.

And that is why we can receive this day - right now - our daily bread: God's perfect will for us it to be just like Him - to be His image and likeness.

Our daily bread is our daily companioning with God, our daily communion with God, our daily experience of God. And what more could we possibly need if we are at-one with Him? being fed the Bread of Life that feeds our every need?

This Bread - this communion - feeds every famished affection, feeds all our need for Love. And that daily experience of God awakens us to our daily forgiving-as-we-forgive, our daily being led - away from trials and turmoil, being delivered from sin, disease, and death.

And so we find ourselves being fed by His grace - and fed not only the unbelievably wonderful unconditional Love of God, but also feeding others by our reflection of that Love, in our own grace, our own peace, and joy, and power.

That is God's will for you, being done in you, just as it is in Heaven. And that communion feeds you and moves you with grace. It awakens you to the fact that, God knows you perfectly and sees you perfectly.

And even if we don't always see ourselves this way, God knows we don't need to be humanly perfect to still "feed the famished affections" - to still be His blessing "on earth as it is in heaven."