The Kingdom of God and our Daily Bread.

Hi everyone,

Beloved children of God...

Yesterday was an interesting day at work for me. We had a management meeting and I was the only one who mentioned the importance of having a proper work-life balance. There were 2 other managers who are proponents of sacrifice for the company. Personal life and professional life are one. One of the managers even said that because he is still single, super driven and willing to 'sacrifice', he said that he is the kind of person the company needs more of. From his tone of voice i can just tell that he is willing to put all else aside just to make money. It is fascinating to see how some of us in this world have put money and material success as the central object of our lives. Even one of the most important pillars of this world, family, can be sacrificed for money. Work takes central importance because that's where we make the 'bread'. But what happens if we stay at the bakery 24/7? What happens to your family for those who have one? What happens to those single people out there who outwardly show and think that having a family is not important at all but deep inside there is a huge cry for love and the need to have a family of their own? Their lives revolve around their personal gains and successes at work and that becomes their measure of success. Will these people truly succeed in what they endeavour to do? Well, monetarily i believe they can achieve what they sought out to do. But what about their soul? That thirst and hunger for total completeness and rest, will they achieve it? Will they be truly rich outside and inside? I doubt so.

Besides putting money as the central measure of success in this life, they have totally negated God out of their equation of success by believing and endorsing systems of wealth creation through external means. Feng Shui, geomancy, horoscope readings, astrology, crystal healing/protection methods and so on takes the position of God for these people. Our God, who is so gracious, will still grant success to these people just to see who they attribute their success to. Is it to Him the Almighty God? Or to that feng shui master who arranged the office furniture? I totally agreed with Pastor Mark in one of his sermons when he said that fear drives people to stupidity... Just get my mom to join the office, she'll gladly arrange your furniture for you every other month. It's her hobby and she loves doing it for fun!

Let's take a look at scripture and see what IS God's way.

Matthew 6:33

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

I'm sure most of us are familiar with this verse. Some would find this verse and use it to spiritualize it to the fullest extent and possibly quote it out of context. Some would say that seeking the kingdom of God is the only thing we should be doing in this world, any pursuit of material gains in this world is wrong. But as we look in context, we can see that God knows our needs and wants. In fact, He sees to our needs and He supplies and He adds upon it. Meaning our needs will spill over to the things that we want also!

So what does God provide? He gives us food to eat, water to drink and clothes to wear. He knows we need all these things. That means basic neccesities are met by His grace.

Matthew 6:31-32

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed?
32 For the nations seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.

And the rest of the stuff that we want is... Added unto you!

To get a richer understanding to what God wants to do for us, we look at the Greek word for 'added' in the Greek NT.

προστίθημι

prostithēmi
pros-tith'-ay-mee

- To place additionally, that is, lay beside, annex, repeat: - add, again, give more, increase, lay unto, proceed further.

So God wants to lay beside us more than what we asked for, He repeats what we already have, He adds again, keeps giving more and increasing further, things laid unto us!

Hallelujah! Thank you God, Praise Jesus...

From all these promises that God has made to us, how necessary is it now for us to get a feng shui master to arrange the office furniture just to get get more sales for the company? Shameful isn't it, how some of us in this world have put our faith in things that are seen instead of the greatest unseen force which is our Almighty YHVH. Jesus our Redeemer has made us right with God to receive His everlasting promises. Isn't it so insulting to our Abba Father to see His children arranging their furniture and thinking that by doing so, more money is going to flow into the company?

It's also interesting to note that the reference to making money is, "bringing the bread home" or "making the dough".

In ancient Hebraic times, there's 2 kinds of bread. The first is the common bread Hametz
חמץ which is leavened bread. Hametz represents our daily life that's tainted with sin (leaven sours the dough to give it flavour after the baking process, leaven is taken from day old dough). It sours our personality and puffs up our pride just like the bread being baked. So, this is the kind of bread that the rest of the world is making.

The second bread is Matzah
מצּה which is unleavened/unfermented bread. Matzah represents our Jesus! The untainted bread, this specific bread, unadulterated by decay. Unlike the rest of humanity, our Lord Jesus had not been infected with the rottenness that was in mankind. Matthew 26:26 says;
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body."

What then, is the taste of Matzah? According to Strong's Concordance it is: concretely sweet (that is, not soured or bittered with yeast). Amen to that! Our daily bread in Jesus is concretely sweet! And like the Manna which is only good for one day, we follow through to Matthew 6:34 'Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow shall be anxious for its own things. Sufficient to the day is the evil of it.'

As Christ is, so are we in this world. We have our Daily Bread in Him, we take it home and oh how completely sweet it is!

Richly blessed dear beloved children of God and amen to that.