The Importance of DailyBread

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

If you look up the question “Why is it important to eat daily,” you will receive loads of answers resulting back to the same general statement: your body needs daily nutrients to stay strong and active, and for continual growth. If you go days without eating, to put it bluntly, you will die. So why do we view a relationship with the Lord any differently?

What You Consume Matters

I Corinthians 3:16-17

In the Bible, we are called “God’s Temple” because that is where the Spirit of God resides. We are instructed to take care of our bodies - temples. So, it is important that we only prioritize such things that bring life.

Oftentimes, we overlook the importance of seeking God daily, or we allow other tasks and stresses in our lives to become “more important” than a relationship with the Lord. Hey! I’m guilty of this myself; more recently too! But that is not the way God has instructed us to live.

God knows the importance of having a daily relationship. For what is a temple for the Lord if you are not inviting Him? Human nature always leads us to vices that the world tries to offer, but we are  A L W A Y S  left hungry. Jesus explains this to the woman at the well in John 4:13-14.

“Jesus answered,”Everyone who drinks this water (metaphorically talking about what the world has to offer) will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them (talking about a relationship with Christ) will never thirst again. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The importance of consumption - spiritually speaking - is truly a matter of life and death. Jesus acknowledges this in verse 13. No matter how many times we take what the world hands us, we are left unsatisfied - and more times than not, we are left more dead than we came. But, when we take hold of what Jesus, at His own expense, freely gives us (love, forgiveness, grace, mercy, wisdom, perseverance,etc.), we gain a new found freedom. We gain eternal life with Jesus.

God Desires Relationship

God knew that as humans, we could not go without sinning, which made a relationship with Him nearly impossible - before Jesus of course. That is why God sent Jesus to die on the cross so that we may not be separated from Him because of our sins, but that we could have endless forgiveness and unconditional love.

John 3:16 explains this concept so well. God loves and desires a relationship with us - daily - so much so that He gave up His own son. Until I truly started seeking the Lord I couldn’t grasp the beauty of this verse.

God cannot be around sin, and we are sinners. However, God still loves us to the degree that He sent His own son to take upon our sin, be crucified, fight for the keys of hell, be resurrected, and later ascend back into Heaven where Jesus fights on our behalf continually. But there’s a moment where God’s love for us really shines within this if you look deeper. God was separated from Jesus when Jesus took our sins upon Himself because the Lord cannot be in the presence of darkness. God LOVES us SO much that He not only gave up His own son for us, but that He gave up being in relation with His son!

“For God so loved the world that he gave up his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV

What a Relationship With God Can Do

I was raised in church my entire life, and the Lord was a constant topic of discussion in my household growing up. Although my parents faith helped form a godly foundation in my life, it wasn’t until I sought out a relationship with the Lord on my own that my life changed for the better.

To be transparent, I have gone through many unfortunate circumstances in my life. From a young age I started to experience mental health struggles which I did not understand or know how to communicate. After my family lost a loved one, I began experiencing the roller coaster which is grief. I started going down a path full of darkness and chaos. I became depressed, angry, hopeless, and suicidal. I would try to satisfy my hunger for Christ with whatever the world had to offer. I blamed the Lord for everything and resented Him more and more everyday. I sought validation from guys, I believed that under eating and over exercising would make me happier, and I partied constantly. Nonetheless, nothing made me hate my life or myself any less. And regardless of the smiles and the fronts I put on, I was dead inside and tried to harm myself on more than one occasion. I hated being alive.

And beautifully, God allowed me to get to that breaking point, where I could no longer keeping going, so that I would cry out to Him. I had lived selfishly for so long and it had only brought me more unhappiness and heartbreak. But, when I started looking to the Lord, I began truly living.

God transformed me from a girl who hated life and resented the Lord, to a girl who seeks the Lord and finds His goodness in each day. From a girl who sought after male validation to a girl who only finds her identity in the Lord. A girl full of anger, wavering “happiness”, and mixed up in endless emotions and mental health struggles, to a girl who found love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control - a steady mindset to cling to.

I am by no means perfect. I continue to struggle every day with sin. But, the beauty of having a relationship with the Lord is that even when we struggle, we do not have to continue. We have a loving Father and friend present whom we can call out to for forgiveness and guidance.

We are not supposed to go through life on our own. We are called to seek the Lord because He knows exactly what we need. Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” When we try to live out our lives on our own, we sink deeper into the traps that the devil sets before us.

Church is not Enough

Like I stated before, I was raised in a Christian household and we went to church every Sunday. And yes, this built a foundation for my life that without my life would look drastically different. However, in the midst of all my struggle and sin, I continued to go to church. I am not shaming anything about church because I do believe that it is a great place to go to be in communion with fellow believers. But, church is not enough.

For example, if you’re wanting to wanting to save money for a new care, but you continue to spend reckless amounts of money everyday but on Sunday, do you think you’re going to reach your goal of getting a new car? You need to be intentional each day of the week. The same goes for a relationship with the Lord. Each day we should be intentional about the time we spend with the Lord. Sundays alone are not going to equip us for the trials and tribulations that the rest of the week has in store. 2 chronicles 12:14 says that when our hearts are not set on seeking the Lord, we will continue to do evil - sin.

When we just rely on a Sunday sermon to prepare us for our week ahead, we are relying on someone else’s faith to make us ready for what life throws at us. The Bible says to be  R E A D Y  in and out of season. If we do not seek the Lord and His wisdom, we are not ready. Our pastors faith can encourage our own, yes, but it is our responsibility to also build our own faith by seeking a relationship that the Lord daily.

Be Encouraged

This is not a message meant to condem or discourage anyone about to their current walk with the Lord! Instead, this message is meant to encourage myself, and others, to get in the Word of God, Pray without ceasing, and pursue a daily relationship with the Lord.

God is a gentlemen. He will knock on the door of your heart and make it known that He wants a relationship with you; however, He will not tear the door down. It is our choice, daily, to choose Him or not.

I hope each one of you has a blessed Friday! Thank you for reading the message that the Lord has laid on my heart, and I pray that it encourages you to seek the Lord daily!

XOXO,

Paislye Grace