Our Daily Bread

Have you seen this show on TV called: My Life After Winning the Lottery. In this show there are many different lottery winners that show how much better their lives have gotten since they won the lottery. As my intrigue led me to watch yet another episode, I started to sense a common pattern. Once the individual or family or group of people “won the lottery” they all stopped. That is right they stopped… working, going to school, parenting, being married, or really doing anything accept buying “stuff” (Which in most cases became the equivalent of a full time job.) Their lives that they had worked so hard for just stopped and their new lives were carefree, stuff filled, and quite frankly had gotten boring.

OK if you are honest with yourself, you would have to admit that there has probably been some point in time where you wished that you had won the lottery… (Come on now?)

Personal Confession: (I know I have!) And as a bi-vocational pastor, there are still days where I would probably love to give it a try as a lottery winner (Maybe even on the show?)

Personal Conviction: But is this taking some of my personal independence just a little too far away from healthy (and necessary) dependence upon God. After all Jesus said, “I will supply all of your needs according to my riches in heaven.”

It seems as though the area of finances, is simply another area where God wants us (me too!) to have a deeper relationship with Him. If we had it all by winning the lottery, we would not need Him, nor His help in this area of our lives. Thus, we give out of obedience and we trust out of relationship that His Word is true, AND that He will supply for all of our needs. School, House, Car, Bills, etc…, even our daily bread…

It also seems as though a lottery win may not be the best thing for our Most Prize Possession – Our relationship with Our Father.

Matthew 6:9-12 “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”