PRESENCE IS REQUESTED

“If you want to avoid worry, do what Sir William Osler did: Live in ‘day-tight compartments.’ Don’t stew about the futures. Just live each day until bedtime.” — Dale Carnegie

Luke 11:3, 5-13
John 6:25-35
Revelation 3:20

Looking at a new Bible software on my computer, I came across some of John Wesley’s notes. Amazingly, I can look up his or Matthew Henry’s famous commentary on almost any passage of scripture.

Having recently spent time in Luke chapter 11, I searched for Wesley and Henry’s words on the Lord’s prayer. Neither of them explicitly made this connection for me, but something in one of the commentaries mentioned that Jesus talks about retrieving bread from a friend in verses 5 and on. This would usually be too mundane to notice , but I saw a light flicker.

Jesus is the bread of life. In John, when he speaks plainly about his metaphor of bread, he declares it: “I am the bread of life.”

His own earthly life began in a town, Bethlehem, whose name means “house of bread.” Could it be that when he tells his disciples to ask for their daily bread, he really means, “Daily, ask for me.” His words in the following verses instruct the disciples to ask, seek and knock that the Lord might give part of Himself in the Spirit.

Since the Lord provided bread from heaven in the desert with manna daily, He continues to provide daily bread. But the lesson to be learned from the provision in the desert should be the picture it gives us of daily sustenance. Let us move on in understanding. Let us see that such sustenance finds fulfillment in the person and presence of Jesus.

Why daily?

Why couldn’t we have enough manna in the desert for tomorrow? What we receive in relationship today won’t serve us tomorrow. Certainly the knowledge gained will lead us into deeper connection with the person, but knowledge and experience cannot substitute for presence.

Daily, we must depend. Daily we must ask and wait for the bread. And if we want to follow Jesus, we must depend on his presence; we must ask and wait for him. I cannot have enough Jesus today to do without him tomorrow.

I need him every today.

Is this not the point of the gospel, to be in presence? To be in God’s presence through the reconciliation attained by His Son? To be fully in the presence of our fellow man through the reconciliation Jesus teaches?

Presence is the point.

It stood central in the garden at the beginning, and it stands central at the end of the story in being with God. What will we do now? We need bread daily. We need our friend every day. Ask for him, seek him, and knock on his door. He waits.

What is God providing for you today?
What helps raise awareness of God’s presence, daily?
What provision do you hold tightest, wanting to store up to be guaranteed for tomorrow?

Adam