Daily Bread In Malaysia

Our Father in heaven
May your name be kept holy
May your Kingdom come soon
May your will be done on earth
As it is in heaven
Give us today the food we need
And forgive us our sins
As we have forgiven those who sin against us
And don’t let us yield to temptation
But rescue us from the evil one

This was the single prayer in my heart as we landed at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Malaysia-East a few weeks ago in June. As a pioneering country, I will lie if I say that I wasn’t hesitant about the two weeks that lied ahead of our team. We at least had accommodation for a few nights, but other than that, we had nowhere to go, nothing to do, no one to meet us at the airport to take us to our ministry point…nada! But we were once again reminded of God’s faithfulness, and that He not only listens to our prayers, but also answers then.
The two weeks in Kota Kinabalu were truly blessed! A lot of time was spent in prayer, not only within the team or in personal time, but also in fellowship with local Christians. By God’s grace, or paths crossed that of a local Catholic Church, and we soon found ourselves praying and worshipping and fellowshipping with them. A few miracles happened in those two weeks, meeting the local Christians was but one of them. But the one thing that stood out to me most of all, was the cross-cultural and cross-denominational boundaries that was not only overcome, but even started to fade away!
Within our own team, we have a handful of different denominations and cultures. This translates to different traditions, different theological understandings, and even sometimes different views on some Christian aspects. There are even more or less five different cultures and races within the group. We are pretty diverse grouping of people. Now add in the local believers, our hosts for those two weeks. Firstly, they belong to the Catholic Church, which also has different traditions, theological understandings, views on Christianity, etc. Secondly, they are also mixed in terms of races and cultures – Malaysian, Chinese, Phillipino, and a few more. The one evening, during worship, I came to realise that we had about ten (if not more) different cultures present, with even more different types of Christian understandings and believes. Not one person in that room even had the same live story or background. But this is where the miracles come in for me – we all worshipped the one and only omnipotent God, and that was our focus. We are all different in almost every aspect of our lives, except for two.
We are all, through our own actions, broken people in need of healing.
Through gracious and undeserving love, we receive God’s grace in abundance, and to Him do we bring all the glory.

With this in mind, I came to realise that I deserve nothing that I have in my live, but by the grace of God, I have exactly what I need, and sometimes even more! Which leads me back to the title of my blog, and to the Lord’s Prayer, especially the part of ‘Give us today our daily bread’. What is my ‘daily bread’? Throughout what follows, I will be referring to ‘us’ and ‘we’, for I believe that this isn’t just something that I struggle with, but also a lot of other people out in the world.

I had to firstly be reminded again of what prayer is and how it works. Some people pray a lot, and others pray only a little, some use big words, whilst others use simple words. You can talk the whole day to God without really saying anything at all. We sometimes even think that we need to repeat our words over and over, as if God didn’t hear us the first time. However it may sound in the end, prayer is necessary, and you should rather do it than not do it. But, and this is a big but, because this is the part where most of us get prayer wrong. We pray, yes, but it’s not a conversation – it’s a monologue. It’s just me talking – ‘God this’ and ‘God that’ – and I don’t give God a chance to talk. In a monologue there is just one person talking, but in a conversation, both parties are talking, and also listening! We not only pray, but also listen!
When we pray "Give us today the food we need” or “Give us this day our daily bread" we’re showing that we’re depending on God. We are depending on Him one day at a time. Jesus urges us, "Don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing….Do not worry about tomorrow" (Mt 6:31, 34). Within our request is the faith – knowledge that God will provide. With confidence we make our needs known to God.

Have you ever not known where your next meal was coming from? Back home I always have more than enough food to eat, so this request may seem remote. Right now – our team have enough to eat, although it may not always be what we want to eat. Back home we could have had any kind of food we wished for – but now we have what we need.

Back in Biblical times, bread was a whole-grain staple of life. It was baked fresh every day and was an essential part of life. Jesus was instructing His disciples to ask God for what they needed to live for the day. Jesus also taught that we do not live by bread alone, but by the words of life found in Scripture. The Jewish Ark of the Covenant contained three items: the Ten Commandments – the actual stone tablets given to Moses, Aaron’s rod – a walking stick that miraculously budded, and a pot of manna – the bread God provided each morning during the long, wilderness wandering. It’s interesting that God made the condition that the people would gather the manna and consume it that day. If they tried to meet tomorrow’s needs on their own by putting some in storage, it would rot, except the day before the Sabbath rest. God was making it necessary for them to rely on Him day-by-day. Later God also provided quail. In Deuteronomy we’re told, "He did this to humble you…so you would never think that it was your own strength and energy that made you prosperous" (8:17)

Bread is a symbol for everything necessary for life and well-being – including food, good health, shelter, clothing, a means of income, peace, safety, friends and family. The book of Proverbs gives the right perspective: "Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches; give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny You and say, ’Who is the Lord?’ And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy Name." This prayer doesn’t imply that we’ll have all we want, but that we will have and receive all that we need.

At times we even think that if we make enough money we’ll be happy, or we& rsquo;ll be able to do more, even for the church. We can spend our whole lives striving for material prosperity and miss what life is really all about. A teenager once asked his parents if they could say grace at dinner and his father said, "I earn my money; I’m the one who puts food on this table, not God." This dad didn’t see the Source of his provision. Food on the table is not by our own efforts. All the resources at our disposal are gifts from Above.
Sometimes we’re even selfish in our prayers. We’re praying for "my" daily bread, instead of “our” daily brad. There’s no room for selfishness here. It’s been said that "bread for myself is a physical need; bread for others is a spiritual matter." There is enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed. Jesus said that when we offer bread to others, we are in effect doing it to Him (Matthew 25:40). Do I only pray for myself, or do I include other people as well? Do I only include those close to me, or do you also pray for those around me, even the ones I don’t know, or maybe don’t want to know? Pray for those around you – your neighbourhood, your city, your country… A man in Dallas Texas heard about a family that needed food. He began to pray, asking God to provide for these needy people, then he paused and said, "Never mind, Lord – I’ll go do it." God works through us. We pass the bread to the rest of the table.

Along with generosity comes contentment. Some people are never satisfied with what they have. Paul states in Philippians, "I’ve learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little. I know how to live on almost nothing and with abundance. I’ve learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty; with plenty or little. For I can do everything with the help of Christ Who gives me the strength I need" (4:11-13). Paul tells Timothy, "If we have food and clothing, let us be content with that" (I Tim 6:8).

People need hope along with lunch! God has established the church to serve what no one else can cook up – the Bread of Life. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life; those who eat this bread will live forever" (John 6:35). To those who are spiritually starved God invites to come and eat without cost. He says "Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?" (Isaiah 55). God offers food for the soul. If we "hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled" (Mt 5:6). The Communion bread we eat represents the spiritual nourishment that Jesus purchased on the cross. When we come to Jesus we never hunger again.

Why do some people not come to Jesus? They’re not hungry. They are too comfortable and self-satisfied. They don’t hunger for what He offers. They are starving spiritually without knowing it. There is a spiritual famine in the world. We come to God’s house to be nourished. Comfortable people don’t go to church. Uncomfortable, hungry people go to church to find strength for the day, and to thank God for the blessings they have. They greatly appreciate the blessings of life, small and large, because they know what it’s like to be uncomfortable. Thomas Merton wrote, "The secret of prayer is a hunger for God." If we are nourished by God, we do not remain the same people. When God fills us, we are changed.

In short, so often do we ask not only for bread, but also for some margarine, and some peanut butter – we go even further and specify the brand and the amount. Is it wrong to ask this of God? I think not, for it is good to ask of God, but it is even better to accept that we don’t always need what we ask for. If it’s bread we need, it’s bread we shall receive. If we need margarine, we shall receive that too, and sometime we even receive in abundance, even if we didn’t specifically ask for it.

Don& rsquo;t know how to pray, or what to ask? Go read the blueprints to prayer – Matthew 6:5-18 and Luke 11:1-13.

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