Monthly Archives: May 2010

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11

The Lord’s Prayer, or more properly The Model Prayer, should be a part of your morning devotion. This prayer is Jesus’ gift to us, His answer to our request “teach us to pray.” Therefore, part of what we should pray every day is “give us this day our daily bread.”

The key to understanding this initial request in The Model Prayer is the word “daily” a surprisingly obscure word in the NT (found only here and in the parallel in Luke). Outside of the NT we find only one example, in a shopping list or list of expenses. This scant evidence proves a real challenge to interpreters and translators. What does the word mean?

Well, daily is very probable, but the phrase then goes beyond a request for enough food to survive. In a broader sense, when you pray for daily bread, you are asking God to provide everything necessary for today. That includes not only the food you eat, but every need. God is faithful to provide precisely what you need for today.

This request for daily sustenance (physical, emotional, spiritual, etc.) draws on the imagery of manna. Recall that God provided manna to sustain the hungry, wandering people of Israel. Every morning they could count on God’s provision. He never failed to provide.

Additionally, remember that the people could not store up enough for extra days. The manna would spoil after one day (except on the day prior to the Sabbath when they could collect enough for two days). They could only receive from God precisely what they needed for that day. In other words, they could not hedge against the future. They were forced to trust that God would provide for the next day.

Now what is the application for you? First, when you pray this part of The Model Prayer you are expressing your trust that God has provided for you today. Nothing will surprise Him. You will not be left in a situation that has taken you beyond His providence. Whatever your need, God has already provided for you. Praying to God opens both your heart and your hands to His blessing.

Second, you must pray daily in order to experience the fullness of God’s provision. Pay attention! I don’t believe God ever withholds a blessing from us, but we certainly limit our ability to receive His gift if we neglect to remain vitally and spiritually connected to Him. This means that you cannot store up for the future either. You must walk with Him in prayer, and thus trust Him not only for today but for all your tomorrows. You will know that each day as you open your heart to Him, He will give you precisely what is necessary for that day.

For most people, I believe, the future looms with a dreadful uncertainty. We have plenty of evidence that some tomorrows will be very hard. But a Christian never needs to dread the future. Wouldn’t it be easier if we could hold in our hands all the manna for the remainder of our days? No. We are not to trust in the manna, but in the Father who provides it. Also, God never relieves us of the need to trust Him, because we are meant to live by faith, daily.

So receive God’s gift today with a blessed assurance for tomorrow as well. “Tis grace hath brought you safe thus far, and grace will lead you home.” Daily.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.” John 20:29

Have you ever taken a leap of faith? The “leap of faith” is a commonly used phrase to describe the final act of a person to believe that a particular direction is in keeping with God’s will. It apparently dates back to Kierkegaard, who actually wrote “leap to faith.” The phrase was his description of the final act of will to embrace the paradoxes of the Christian faith.

In other words, you take a leap of faith when the commitment seems unlikely, un-provable, or counter-intuitive. We come to the end of a process of analysis and find a cliff. Something does not make sense. At that point, you embrace faith and make the leap.

Now have you ever made a leap of faith? I have to say, I can’t think of a time when I have. That may surprise you, but after hearing the phrase a number of times in different contexts, I believe it is overused and misapplied. Let me explain.

To say that we often must make a leap of faith implies that God has left a great chasm between you and the truth or direction you seek. But is that the case? Not at all. Yes, some aspects of the Christian life require tremendous trust and commitment, but I don’t find any of the Christian life or faith lacking considerable empirical support.

Even at the beginning of faith, when a person first commits to Christ, even that act is not really a leap against all logic and evidence. When faced squarely, sin has made a mess of our lives, we cannot adequately “forgive ourselves,” communion with a holy and perfect God is beyond our ability. Those few bits of rational evidence lead me to believe that we do need a Savior, and if I survey history there was one Man who lived a sinless life, assured us of a good and loving God, and offered forgiveness through His death. Then, of course, we have the empirical evidence of His resurrection. Are we really left at that point with a giant chasm that defies reason? Not at all. So the leap of faith may not really be a leap at all, just a step toward God in which we move away from self and into His embrace.

Now I do not want to quibble with the phrase when used on the grand scale of salvation, but I do want to object to its rather common use to describe many decisions and commitments we make as Christians. Staying faithful to your spouse is not a leap of faith. Neither is attending church, or tithing, or acting with integrity in your business. Forsaking gossip is not a leap of faith. Living graciously and showing kindness does not require a leap of faith.

There are many times when we must take a step of faith that brings us closer to God’s will in our lives, but even at that point God has given us tremendous encouragement and proof. For example, remember the power of scripture: “the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:8), and “the word of God is living and active” (Heb. 12). If a particular direction is in keeping with the principles we find in God’s word, then you do not need to make a leap of faith. Or pay attention to the counsel of trusted Christian friends. God often speaks through His servants to His servants (Prov. 15:22). I rely heavily on grace-filled brothers and sisters in Christ to offer wise counsel.

Too often we are like the rich man in Luke 16 who, after his death, begged Abraham to send Lazarus to his family to warn them. Abraham’s response is that God already had provided sufficient direction. Signs would not help when faith is required. We may want signs, but God provide signposts. In fact, I find these all around me, showing me the directions I must go.

So I prefer the phrase “a step of faith” to “a leap of faith” because I simply do not think that God often requires us to do something that is utter nonsense. We use the spiritual gifts of discernment, wisdom, knowledge, and, yes, faith to submit one other area of our lives more deeply to God’s will and purpose. So do not wait for signs of what you should do. Jesus discouraged this. But look for the signposts. They are clear. Follow them, step by step into the joy for which your Father created you.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“Let everyone see your grace-filled kindness.” Philippians 4:5

In any Olympic event where judging is necessary, one criteria is the “degree of difficulty.” In the past Winter Olympics, for example, the snowboard half-pipe routines have a degree of difficulty. The more difficult routines have a higher degree of difficulty. By the way, as an occasional snowboarder, I have done some of those flips and spins, though never intentionally.

I realized later that people often come with a degree of difficulty. Some are quite high, others less so. A part of dealing with difficult people is coming to the point where you simply accept the fact that people are difficult. Not everyone will do everything according to your desires. You must accept the fact that people come with flaws, they do things that are boorish, thoughtless, deceitful, even downright mean. They can disappoint you. It is their degree of difficulty.

When you accept this uncomfortable truth it frees you to begin accepting them where they are, loving them, and serving them as Christ wants us to. Also, and this is very important, it relieves you from the fiction that you must change, alter, or improve them in some way. That is what we love to do. We harbor the notion that we can fix people.

Remember Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady? He lived to change others, but could not bear the thought of someone, especially a woman, trying to change him. “BUT, Let a woman in your life and your serenity is through, she'll redecorate your home, from the cellar to the dome, and then go on to the enthralling fun of overhauling you!”

What is he saying? Accept me. Higgins would probably add, “admire me,” but the point is we need to accept that people have a certain degree of difficulty and resist the urge to try to change them at every point.

One Greek word describing this Christian virtue is forbearance, though we seldom use that word in everyday language. It comes from a Greek word, epieikeia, and contains the nuances of graciousness, kindness, and patience. My somewhat awkward translation is “grace-filled kindness.” Paul wrote that we are to let this quality be known to all people, even and especially those with a high degree of difficulty.

Of course, Jesus modeled this. He accepted people where they were with one important difference. He offered to change them from the inside, something we cannot do. He did not say to Peter when they first met, “clean up your language, settle down, and, by the way, don’t betray me on down the road.” He accepted Peter, Judas and the others with their degree of difficulty, and through love tried to lead them to a higher life. Our calling is to love, even our enemies (Mt. 5:43-47). In that way, we point others to Christ, the real agent of change.

Dealing with difficult people is an art that takes a life-time of practice. But beginning with love, rather than criticism and rejection, is the way that honors Christ. Demonstrate grace-filled kindness to that irritating person you work with, to a grouchy clerk, to the driver that cut you off, and especially to that thankless family member. Also, it won’t hurt to remember that you come with your own degree of difficulty.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“And He told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Luke 18:1

One of the most misunderstood and misapplied teachings of Jesus is the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8). Luke is very clear about the reason Jesus told this parable: He wanted us to pray always and not lose heart. What follows is the story of a powerless widow who had been defrauded in some way. She approached the uncaring judge and was rebuffed. But she kept coming until finally the unrighteous official relented and pronounced a judgment in her favor, not because he finally saw the rightness of her claim, but because she kept pestering him.

Now here is what we normally do with this parable: we allegorize it. The woman becomes any of us who has a request of God. The judge is God who acts like the most unresponsive official in a poorly run government office. You can leave a message but no one is likely to call you back. The application, therefore, of the parable is that we must keep praying and praying and praying to get God’s attention and our way.

I have heard this parable preached and taught in this way. I have heard the exhortation that we should knock down the doors of heaven with our prayers. Applied in this way, God sounds rather reluctant, and prayer simply becomes a way of wearing Him down.

Is this what Jesus meant to teach? OF COURSE NOT!! It is not a true encouragement to pray if we are taught to keep asking and asking with the conviction that sooner or later we are going to provoke God into giving us what we want. It makes us sound like the kid in the grocery store checkout line that incessantly whines for candy until the frazzled parent eventually gives in.

This parable is meant to contrast God and the unrighteous judge, not compare them. The point of the parable, the point that we often miss, is that God is completely unlike the judge. He is a loving Father who personally knows and genuinely cares about you. A loving Father listens to His children enthusiastically. He does not need to be coerced by repetitious prayers in the belief that only in that way will you be able to get His attention. You already have His attention! Now what do you want to say to Him?

Your Father in heaven loves and listens to you. Your prayer goes directly from your mouth to His ear (and the Spirit also intercedes for you!). You have a Father who “knows how to give good gifts to His children” (Matt. 7:11). God is not reluctant. He is love and grace. You do not need to knock down the doors of heaven with your prayers. They are already open to you, and so is God’s heart. Now keep praying, and rest assured that He listens and responds.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis