Bread For The Day
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall…teach them diligently…and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)
“Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.” (Proverbs 7:2-3)
I’m repeatedly surprised at how foolish I tend to be (Proverbs 26:11-12).
I continually overestimate my capacity to put into practice what I have previously learned (Jeremiah 17:5).
I continually underestimate my propensity to forget (Psalm 106:13).
Most frustrating, I must be perpetually reminded how difficult it is to keep following Jesus, even though He told us plainly, “the way is hard that leads to life” (Matthew 7:14).
Apparently, the Biblical writers anticipated that I would be so obtuse that I would need to keep reminders constantly before me, literally in my field of vision, lest I forget.
No matter how far we think we have progressed in our journey of following Jesus, the gospel of grace leaks out of our hearts. We fall back into patterns that we know are self-destructive (Romans 8:15). We do not do what we want, and we keep doing the very things we hate (Romans 7:15). We never get beyond going back to what may feel like kindergarten.
“Always we begin again,” said Benedict, one of the early church fathers.
The sheer quotidian repetitiveness of daily life turns out to be one of the most challenging aspects of following Jesus. Maybe that’s why walking is one of the most prevalent images in the Bible for our life with God (Galatians 5:16). Not flying, not transmogrifying, not even driving. Just walking. Left, right, left, right.
Why do we neglect the very tools that we know, by experience, we need to make use of to be healthy? Even if we are convinced of the necessity of having better habits. Even when we are aware that our mindset for that day will be decisively affected by the first few choices we make each morning.
In following that Biblical insight that we are not nearly as wise or as strong or as capable as we think we are, and therefore need constant day-after-day reminders to keep God’s wisdom before us, Bread for the Day is a good word to keep you on the path. Delivered three (or so) days each week, to you.
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Sabbath Questions
Listening to these sermons with a group? Occasionally we’ll include discussion questions, like these.
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