Pray this Day  

                                    ...      _ _ _ _________ 
                                 ·´º o`·, /__/ _/\____ ____/\
                             ```)¨(´´´ | | | | | | | || |l±±±±|
                           ¸,.-·²°´ ¸,.-·~·~·-.,¸ `°²·-. :º° ·~·~·-..,¸
                         ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord´

“Igniting soul’s through the proclamation of Jesus Christ”.

  The familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact, the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year.  Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”  When Christ was tempted of the devil in the wilderness, He quoted this Scripture pointing out that physical bread is not what sustains life, but rather it is the Bread from Heaven, the Word of God.  There is no satisfaction in life to be found apart from the Word of God.  There is no way to live in victory apart from the Word of God.  The Word of God is our daily bread.  Without it, we will perish.

Word of God Focus: “Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.”  (Psalm 119:92)

  Much like the rules parents have for young children, don't drink what's under the cabinet, don't play in the street, don't walk out from behind parked cars, God's guidance is not to restrict us, but to protect us.  His commands, both positive and prohibitive, are for our protection and perfection.  By them we find life and have it preserved.  The Old Testament Law had all sorts of cleanliness laws that did not make any sense at all until thousands of years after they were written when we began to understand bacteria and viruses.  All through these years, the Israelites were preserved by God's command when they had no real understanding why God had given the laws in the first place.

  The Psalmist recognized how important the Word of God was for health and life.  It is no different for us, and we have no other provision given to us by God that will sustain us and meet our need for each day.  Just as the children of Israel gathered the manna sufficient for each day at dawn every morning, we must also find the Source of our life on a daily basis.  We cannot, again like the children of Israel, hope to gather enough daily manna once or twice a week and expect it to sustain us.  If you will note, the manna from Heaven was sent daily, to be gathered daily, to be eaten daily, and if it was not totally consumed each day it spoiled and bred worms.  It is noteworthy that the daily schedule of gathering manna was set at the same time every day, at the break of dawn, with the exception of the one day of the week where they would gather enough to sustain them for two days so they would not violate the Sabbath laws.  Can we hope to attend church once or twice or even three times a week and expect that to sustain us on the days between services?  The children of Israel had to leave their tents and go out to gather the manna, making it a necessary routine to gather enough provision for each day.

  Let us Pray: “Faithful God, thank You for loving me so sacrificially and steadfastly.  Thank You for the way You preserved Your promises to the Israelites and brought Jesus just as You promised.  Holy Lord, help us see Your words as life.  We know You have given Your commands, Your will for holiness, to bless us and protect us.  Father, Your word is so complete.  And the Word of God is so rich.  You have provided to us everything that we need to sustain our lives in the Word of God.  Help us, Lord, to be diligent to satisfy the hunger in our souls by collecting our daily Manna from Heaven before we start each day as part of our early morning rising.  Father, help each of us to hunger after Your Word more than we hunger after other things.  Help us, Father, to crave Your Word and to find satisfaction nowhere else.  Lord, help us see Your words as life.  We know You have given Your commands, Your will for holiness, to bless us and protect us.  Use Your Spirit to make thy heart less stubborn and thy life more nearly conformed to Your will.  Father, give us this day our daily bread, today and every day as we commit to seek You early in the morning gathering Your provision for us each new day.  Use Your Spirit to make each heart less stubborn and our life more nearly conformed to Your will.  Thank You, Lord, for showing us Your provision and Your plan for victorious living.  Please receive the deeds and words of this day as our thanks to You for Your covenant of love with us and those we love.  In the Name of Jesus, Your gift of love, we pray.  And Amen.”

  If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning, ‘we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna,’ make it a habit.  Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day.  And remember that today's manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow, tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning, etc.  God’s provision is absolutely amazing!  He left out absolutely no detail in providing to us a plan for victorious living.  Take advantage of His roadmap for life found in the Word of God and find satisfaction for today's hunger “according to the pattern”.

  “I am the Living Bread that came down from Heaven.” (John 6:51)

Love in the Lord

Paul/Hayman

"Igniting passion in the people of God through the proclamation of truth."

E-Mail: Dagwood944@comcast.net 

http://www.flickr.com/groups/fellowshipinchrist 

www.mychurch.org/FellowshipInChrist 

http://mash.yahoo.com/Paul/Hayman 

 God is faithful and His covenant is a covenant of love.  He will not forsake us and will treat us better than we deserve just as a loving parent treats a rebellious child better than he/she deserves.  But our hearts must be tuned to honor God as God, not as just a good luck charm or a weekly guest into our otherwise busy lives.  What we do must be done in awareness that it is done before and for Him.