Tag: faith

Seeking Jesus as our Daily Bread

On By Rebecca1 Comment

Most people reading this post will I imagine be familiar with the words “Give us today our daily bread”, as it is a line from ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ (found in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4), arguably one of the most well known passages in the bible. Recently I have taken to praying the Lord’s prayer every day, not out of dutiful religiosity but as a way of connecting with and aligning myself with Father God in the mornings.

Often when hearing teaching about the Lord’s prayer, this line is often taught to be about asking God for our daily needs. (And it is still appropriate for that!) But over time I began to see that this line builds on a previous revelation I had from God, that Only One Thing is Needed. I began to see even more through this verse, that really, I do only have one need and it is for daily bread, but not necessarily for physical bread. It is for living bread, the bread that came down from heaven, Jesus Christ.

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”. John 6:35 NIV.

Jesus wants to fill us with himself and fill us with life, but how many of us go to him to satisfy our hunger? 

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Wake up!

On By RebeccaLeave a comment

Sleep is a time of rest when our bodies shut down, our senses tune out and we disconnect from the world until we wake again. In reality, when we are asleep we are actually quite vulnerable as we are no longer aware of what is going on around us. Nevertheless, sleep was created by God for a specific purpose and it is a blessing from God that restores and refreshes our bodies in a way that nothing else can.

But what does it mean to be spiritually asleep? Is being spiritually asleep good for us in the same way physical sleep is? The short answer is no! But I do believe that there are certain similarities to physical sleep, in that when we are spiritually asleep, we also make ourselves vulnerable because we lack awareness of what is happening around us. 

In Revelation 3:2-3, Jesus urges the church in Sardis to ‘Wake up!’, He asks them to repent and finish the work they have begun, otherwise his return will be a shock to them. I believe Jesus is still speaking those words to his bride, the church, today. 

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Why do your expectations matter so much?

On By Rebecca1 Comment

At the beginning of this year, I was reading one of my favourite accounts in the bible – where Jesus heals the woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8. However, as I read it on this occasion, one word in verse 40 really stood out to me. I could feel the Holy Spirit all over that word and the word was ‘expecting’. The whole verse reads “Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him”. 

The crowd were waiting for Jesus to arrive, but they weren’t just hoping to get a glimpse of him. There was a good reason why he was attracting such crowds! The crowd were eagerly expecting Jesus because they knew that when Jesus showed up, miracles, signs and wonders were sure to follow.

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Finding Rest in the Storm

On By Rebecca1 Comment

One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.

In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

Luke 8:22-25 NIV

Jesus kindly spoke to me through these verses one day this week when I was struggling in my own storm. Feeling hard pressed on many sides, the wind and waves surrounding me felt overwhelming, and I was struggling to look beyond them.

Many of the things going on weren’t new, I had prayed about them and thought I had entrusted them to God! Yet on this day, I had no peace and just yearned for some breakthrough and relief from all that was happening.

In his abounding kindness, Jesus invited me to rest in the storm with him instead of struggling in it. In these verses from Luke we see that the disciples were consumed with the wind and the waves, and let fear rule in their hearts in the storm. This is in stark contrast to Jesus, who was asleep and at rest in the bottom of the boat, totally at ease, not for one moment worried by the storm. 

Where do you want to be in the storms in your life? 

Jesus graciously invites us today, ‘Come and rest with me in the midst of your storm!’ 

But how do we truly find rest in the storm? I believe Jesus tells us this through the question he asks the disciples in verse 25 – ‘Where is your faith?’ Clearly he is indicating that this is what they are lacking in this situation. If the disciples had faith in God, they would not be panicking. Faith is our key to being able to rest in the storm.

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