Rain Bread From Heaven

 Exodus 16:4

…Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you,..
Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide (Gen 22:14) the promise given to Abraham and now given again to the people of Israel as they make their way through the wilderness. Like Israel, we are making our journey through life in this world. Navigating are way through the difficult circumstances, traversing across unknown territory. We all face different unknowns and wonder how we will make it through our situation. The needs are different for each one of us. Some needs are material, others emotional or spiritual. The reality is that Jesus is all we really need. He is the bread that is rained down from Heaven, He will supply all our needs according to His riches in heaven. When we seek first Him and His kingdom all the things that we really need are added to us. God knows what we need and how to supply it. It is not always in the way we think, but our needs are met and His name is glorified, for He knows what is best. It is about to rain bread from heaven, start gathering your baskets for He is Johovah-Jireh, He is enough.

He Is Our Daily Bread

 Matt 6:11
 Give us this day our daily bread.
Prayer takes many forms and what we pray about depends on what we seek. We may be seeking to have more of God, the healing of a loved one, the spiritual well being of a friend, direction in how we should proceed, or for our daily bread. The material needs and provision we need, or things we need is important to God. He does know exactly what things we need, so we may not always get what we ask for.  Jesus says, “Ask and ye shall receive…” but our asking should always end in, “But Thy will be done”. Our daily bread is not necessarily speaking of food, but it speaks to the needs of our entire being. Our emotional, metal, and physical state. He is the bread of life, and He is all we need. He is our daily bread, and in Him we can find peace of mind, calm in the storm, healing and nourishment for the body. “Give us this day “Jesus”, and all these other things we ask for will fall in place.

Not By Bread Alone

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Matt 4:4 

…Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceed out of the mouth of God.

Man is not just a physical being in need of nutrients to keep them alive and healthy. People are created with a mind, body, and soul. People cannot truly live if they don’t feed the whole person. As creatures of flesh, we tend to focus on the body. Hunger, thirst, strength, and pleasure. But there is more to life than fulfilling the needs of the flesh. Man does not live by this alone, but it must be feed food from above, manna from heaven, the word of God. And this is the Word of God that speaks. Christ the bread of life, the fountain of living water, the One who gives spiritual and eternal life. The temptation is to put priority in making sure the physical needs are met first. This is known in the world as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This is the way of the flesh. But Jesus’ hierarchy teaches that seeing God as our greatest need and then trusting Him to provide for all our other needs is the way of God. The greatest teacher that ever live on earth said,  “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you”. 

The Living Bread

John 6:51 “ I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

As a young child growing up in the Catholic faith, I always pondered the purpose of communion. I recall the priest lifting up a wafer that represented the bread, which takes away the sins of the world. The meaning of this symbolism did not reach my heart until I was a teen seeking to know God through a personal relationship, and not through the rituals of church liturgy. I came to understand that Jesus, the Bread of life not only came to die for the world, but came to die for me. What a revelation I got when my eyes were open and I saw Jesus as my personal Savior who gave of his flesh, shed His blood that I may know forgiveness of sin. Yes, I went often to confession, and told the priest all the things I did I thought were bad, and there was a measure of peace that I had unloaded my guilt on someone else who was able to resolve my sins by have me say a few “Our Father and Hail Mary” prayers, but this was peace was only temporary. What a revelation it was in my life when I found out that I could always have this peace. That Jesus, the source of life could provide eternal life if I would only believe in Him. I know their are many who find comfort in their Catholic faith, and I respect that, but I did not find real satisfaction in life until I was able to partake of the Bread of Life. Life has never been the same.

What is This?

Ex 16:15b “What is this?” For they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them, “This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.”-

God does not always give us what we expect. We pray and ask God to provide us with our needs, and when He answers, it is not always in the way we thought it would be. We may ask like the Israelite did, “What is this? This is not what I asked for”. Following God wherever He goes will often require us to accept things that are out of the box or out of the norm. God works in ways that are beyond our understanding and He always knows what is best for us. The next time God does something for us beyond what we expect, our attitude should be, “What is this blessing that God has provided, He is so good!”

The Bread of God

John 6:33 “ For the bread of God is He that cometh down from Heaven, and giveth life unto the world”-

The desire for earthly bread is a natural human craving. When we get hungry, we start thinking what would be good to satisfy our stomachs. It is only a few hours before once again we are looking for more earthly bread. Life is so consumed with fulfilling the fleshly desires of life. In and of themselves, not all of these desires are wrong or sinful. But, many in this world only seek the things of the world. They desire to gather material wealth, popularity, or power. They crave for self satisfaction. They are seekers of pleasure rather than be seekers of God. Jesus recognized that many who were following Him were only wanting that which would satisfy their earthly desires of the flesh. “Verily, verily I say unto you, ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye ate of the loaves and were filled.” (Jn 6:26). God wants to give bread to the world that will bring every lasting fulfillment. Jesus, the bread of life that came down from heaven is the true source of satisfaction. If we will eat this bread, our cravings for the earthly bread will fade away. As we daily eat of the bread of life, we find in Him that He will satisfied all the longings of our heart. Our affections are now set on things above and not on things of this world. In Him is life, and we must believe that He is the giver of life. Let us now eat, and be satisfied.