Give us this day our daily bread.

Worry and strife are joy-stealers. And so are those who plant seeds of worry and strife. Sometimes these sorts of conflicts seem to arise from simple meanspiritedness, and at other times they may come from concerns over needs and wants.

Maybe we’ve all heard the lectures about needs vs. wants. They make a valid point, even if they echo into ears that may have tuned out long ago.

But God is Jehovah-Jireh, the Provider. He knows our needs and our wants.

He planted the deepest, most holy desires in our hearts. He is the Source of all we need and the wellspring of abundant joy.

What about the joy-stealers?

Just this morning, I was making fresh cinnamon bread. As it baked, I sniffed the air with great enjoyment. The whole house began filling with the wonderful aroma.

Personally, I think I derive as much pleasure from the scent of cinnamon bread baking as I do from actually eating it.

Then someone stepped into the kitchen and turned the fan on. Sometimes joy-stealing comes in curious forms.

But God is the Giver.

God provided the means to obtain the ingredients for the bread. He gave me the ability to bake them into a sweet-smelling (and ultimately, yummy) loaf.

May He grant me the grace to ignore joy-stealers and seek God’s own joy instead.

I stepped into the kitchen, switched off the fan, and took a giant breath of fresh-baked cinnamon bread.

Ah. Give us this day our daily bread.

 O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.  The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.

Psalm 34:8-10, KJV

Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:  Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

Proverbs 30:8-9, KJV

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?  Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Matthew 6:23-26, KJV

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8, JKV

Today, our daily bread was extra delicious. And it needed no jam or preserves. This time, the Lord preserved the joy, and the homemade treat was sweet indeed.

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