My little faith

I am a believer that any good lesson must first be learned by the teacher. A good teacher must first be a good student, and once this happens they will teach in a way that connects both the mind and heart of their audience. It will be like a cup that overflows. The teacher will teach from the inside out. Today I stand before you as a young teacher who has been schooled by the Holy Spirit.
Stephanie and I have recently begun leading the high school group at our church. We are all excited to see what God will do with us as we look at His Word and humbly ask "What does this mean for our group?" and "How can we be used where we live?"
This week I will be teaching on the subject of 'Living in today' from Matthew 6:25-34. Jesus is teaching his sermon on the mount and he challenges his listeners not to worry about tomorrow but simply seek first his kingdom and you will be taken care of. This is a very familiar passage for most of us who have been in the Church for any amount of time. I have taught this passage many times but this time as I prayed through it and thought about my teens, Jesus' words hit me as though I had never heard them. It wasn't only this passage that messed me up, it was Jesus' prayer in the chapter before. In a simple sentence Jesus ruined my whole afternoon. In Matthew 6: 11 Jesus says in his model prayer "Give us today our daily bread". Now, again, this is a prayer that we have all read and studied but I couldn't help but notice this sentence because this is not a prayer I or many of the Christians I know personally would pray regularly. And if we would pray this prayer it would be without thinking about the implications. What if God only gave you your daily bread? Better yet, what if God wanted you to only and always be content with your daily bread? Don't worry about tomorrow?!
In this Western Christian culture are we really OK with getting our daily bread from God? I would have to say no based on our lifestyles and our prayer life. We always want more blessings, our homes are full of stuff and our fridges are full of food. I want to be clear here, I'm not saying blessings from God are bad. I'm just saying when I really look at my life and read Jesus' prayer I have to admit that I am scared and I do worry about tomorrow especially when other people around me seem to have so much. I think in some ways we all do. So the questions have to be asked: "Where is my faith?" and "What would it look like if we really put God's kingdom first, and trusted Him for our daily bread?" 


"Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." Proverbs 30:8-9