Daily Bread
Who doesn’t love a fresh loaf bread? I have been baking fresh bread every day for the past 40 days, when our church Mercy Culture called us into a corporate fast for this year. I asked God what He wanted me to do, I clearly felt Him inviting me into baking bread but making it a time to pray & be with Him. I denied myself of food in the day, and the only food I could eat was the bread I made with Him at night.
Fasting is a spiritual discipline that is taught in the Bible. Fasting, according to the Bible, means to voluntarily reduce or eliminate your intake of food for a specific time and purpose. Matthew 4 vs 1 - 11 shows us that Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights!
I remember the first day of the fast - I was STARVING for that bread, after baking my first loaf (ever) - I remember thinking bread has NEVER tasted THIS good! The next day (day 2 of the fast) I ate some of the bread I made the night before and it instantly tasted dull, it also wasn’t as good as I remembered it to be but I was hungry so I took another bite! Almost immediately I felt the conviction from the Holy Spirit (it came as that feeling in your gut that you just KNOW you’re not doing the right thing!) and then I heard Him say “Do not eat yesterday’s bread!”.
In Exodus 16 - God gives similar instruction to Moses & the Israelites while they were in the wilderness; He told them they were to only eat the fresh bread (they called “manna”) from Heaven.
If you have ever made fresh bread from scratch (especially sourdough) then you’ll know that it requires tending to, it requires intention and it takes time. The thought of potentially going to waste was just a little bit... annoying! But I knew His will over my own.
I had been reading through the New Testament in fast and came across this scripture in Matthew 13 vs 33:
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough”
Most of you reading this know that yeast is a living organism that helps the dough rise, in order for it to do its job it has to be alive! Yeast also works internally, not externally. A little bit of yeast is added to the dough & the dough doubles in size. I believe this is a picture of how God wants to establish His ways in us, how He wants to transform us from the inside out, how He wants to grow in us the Kingdom of God first… how He wants to be alive in us!
After 21 days the Lord spoke to me and said I could add fruits and vegetables to my fast during the day but continue making bread at night, what surprised me was that by the time evening came and I baked my loaf, the bread wasn’t as delicious as the previous days!
I felt like He was teaching me a lesson in that, He spoke and said: “Do you see that when you’re satisfied with other things, you will no longer be satisfied with Me? (The bread of life!).
John 6 vs 35 that says: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
I believe He wants to strip away any parts of us that are not fully satisfied in Him, He wants to teach us how to slow down and not neglect the internal work of the Kingdom of God.
No matter where you are in your fasting journey or simply your relationship with Jesus - hold on to the promise of John 6 vs 35 that when we come to Him, we will never hunger again for things that simply don’t produce life in us!
I believe what God has shaped in me these past 40 days, He wants to do for all of us! I believe we can transform our families, our kids, our marriages by this simple truth - going to our true source of life, our daily bread; Jesus!
Ask yourself these 2 questions:
What is one thing (or more!) God might be asking you to give up for a short time that will help you draw closer to Him?
Do you daily spend time with God? The only way we will grow is by nurturing our relationship with the Lord!
Now you can replace that daily tv time / scrolling time / eating time _ (fill in the blank) with reading the word or spending time in prayer or going on a walk while listening & talking to God! Let this be the year you draw near to Him.
