IT'S GOOD TO TALK!

Our Father in heaven,
May your holy name be honoured;
May your kingdom come,
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven;
Give us today the food we need;  
Forgive us the wrong we have done,
As we forgive the wrong that others have done to us;
Do not bring us to hard testing, but deliver us from the Evil One.
(Matthew 6:9-13)

Food for today

This month’s thought is about the daily provision of our essential needs. This is an aspect of the Lord’s Prayer that concerns us all.
Few, if any of us, reading this will be lacking enough to eat today, but 65 years ago many of us had at least a taste of it in war-time rationing, and feeling we needed a little more than we had. Having fed the children on what was available, many mothers left the room because there was insufficient for them to share the meal.

Want, waste – and waist

Now we live in a world suffering the extremes of want and waste. In the West, a war on life threatening obesity is well under way, while in Africa thousands continue to die every year through the lack of sufficient food and its consequences.
Certainly there is enough food to go round - if only there was less politicking, if national borders were more open, if crooked middlemen could be bypassed, if armed tribal gangs could be eliminated, and if the food could be delivered straight to those who need it most.

‘Give us today the food we need!’  

Providing us with daily food is no problem for the Lord! When his people, Israel, wandered in the wilderness, he provided ‘manna’ from heaven, 5 days a week, and twice as much on the 6th day. This continued for 40 years, until they reaped their first harvest in the Land of Canaan. In all that time, not a day passed without there being sufficient to feed an entire nation!
Be sure that your heavenly Father can provide for your daily needs!

Your heavenly Father knows

In one of the loveliest parts of the Gospels, Jesus urges his disciples to pray. ‘Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you’, he assured them. (Matthew 7: 7)
But Jesus wasn’t convinced that the disciples could grasp the fact that prayer was that simple, so he put it more plainly still: ‘Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?’ No, of course not! What kind of father would do that? But then came the most marvellous of assurances: ‘If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? ’ (Matthew 7:11)

Playing our part

Of course, working to provide for ourselves and the needs of others, is the responsibility of everyone of us - if we are able. The many examples of the Lord feeding the hungry in the Bible all found themselves in need through circumstances beyond their control.

More than food

Perhaps in today’s climate, it is not food we need but help to cope with the cost of living. As I write, the Bank rate has risen again – stretching many mortgage-payers to the limit. Or you may struggle with unemployment, or the cost of coping as a single parent – the possibilities are endless. There is hope, and help, available!

Ask. Seek. Knock

Why should Jesus teach his disciples to ask their heavenly Father to provide their essential daily needs unless he was both able and willing to provide for them?  It’s time to talk!
Michael Toogood