Daily Bread

That "prayer that Jesus taught us" is a weighty prayer.  We often pray it so whimsically, but the short model for prayer is deep and if we took stock of the words, we would pray with great reverence and a "Lord I believe, help my unbelief..." added to the beginning or end.  Right in the middle of Matthew 6:10-12 are the words I want to briefly reflect upon.

Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD,
and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.

This is a repeated lesson throughout Scripture- trust the Lord for what you need TODAY... Later in Matthew 6:24-33 Jesus goes on to say:

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 

The current circumstances of my life have brought my faith in these words, and in the goodness of the God who spoke them, to the test.  And I continually find it incredibly difficult to simply ask God for my daily bread- particularly the provision of shelter and mental/emotional stability- and then trust that He knows everything that I need and will provide it if I simply seek Him and His kingdom.  My brainstorming for how He might provide these things is not necessary for Him, and honestly it corrodes the little faith I have as I pray it and stirs anxiety.  When I pray it and then believe that He will answer that humble prayer, I generally find that I'm not too anxious about much of anything else that day.  But when I can't let the prayer go because I cling to anxiety about my life as well, I'm trying to serve two masters, and I can't.  And if I don't give myself fully to faith in God, I bow to anxiety.  And it is miserable.

All men seek after their daily needs, and my heavenly Father knows that I need them all.  So I don't need to seek after them.  Rather I need to keep first things first, and see the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  The rest will come, because He is a good Father.  It probably won't come the way I want it to come, but I will get my daily bread the way He knows is best for me.