our daily bread

i look to my left. hung on the wall beside me was a little poster which says:


The Lord Provides

Look at the birds...
they do not sow
or reap or store away
in barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them ---

Are you not much
more valuable than they?

Matthew 6:26

i look to my right. there was a piece of paper on which was written:

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6:33-34

Father, give us today our daily bread.

i haven't really thought much about provisions --- ever --- until these past couple of months. i don't mean to brag but things just happened to fall on my lap. so i took God's blessings for granted, in the same way that we take for granted the sunrise in the morning and our waking up every day.

[just because something happens with absolute periodicity [translation: regularity] in the past --- is NO GUARANTEE about the future. any scientist should be able to tell us that ONE SINGLE instance is enough to DISPROVE an entire, centuries-held "law". but we scientists take things for granted ourselves! we must have a healthy balance between confidence ("faith") and skepticism :) ]

but now i'm going to China (read here) as a missionary for two weeks. that changes everything.

• i need WAY more than my current salary can handle.
• i get to share about God and how we need Him in our lives, WAY before i leave the shores of the Philippines
• i need WAY more of God. WAY more faith that He will come through for me. WAY more trust and dependence on Him; not in what i can do nor the (seeming) randomness or luck of everyday life.

but it's happening. it's all coming to pass, right in front of my eyes.

i will go to China.

as God's bearer of His Good News!

twice even! (read here.)

i will go. in His Name! :)

how liberating is that. it's not about me but about Him. i'm just the messenger. :D

how humbling is that. it's not about me but about Him. i'm just the messenger. :D

right now i'm trusting God for more than my daily bread.

because it's not for me anymore. it stopped being about me a long time ago :)

it's now for His glory, and for the sake of my brothers and sisters who have yet to hear or have yet to welcome God into their hearts.

and if i have been blessed before, what more now, when i am right smack in the center of His will and purposes for me?

i KNOW You will provide for me Lord. the only question is how :) but in any case, there is a time for everything. a time to be still and a time to act. You have said, "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10) Now, i will act, but all the more knowing that You are God. it is You who will crush mountains so i can pass through. it is You who will soften hearts so i can get through :) still, all for You :)

God the Holy Spirit just reminded me of something :) there's this line that comes before asking for our daily bread :) (see the complete prayer in the Gospels of Luke or Matthew.)

Holy be Your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

amen. :)

it's definitely WAY more about my daily bread now.

:)