The Giving God

 Posted at Reformation Scotland:

Jesus taught his disciples to pray for “our daily bread.” Whether we are struggling to make ends meet, or comfortably off, we are all entirely dependent on God’s goodness for getting by each day. We will never find a reason which will let us demand God to provide for us. The reasons He gives anyone anything are in His own goodness, unconstrained by anything about us or our circumstances. Reflecting on the Lord’s Prayer along these lines, Thomas Manton points out in the following extract that when we consider what God is, in His abundant generosity and mercy, we can take encouragement to continue praying every day, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

The Lord gives good things to us freely and graciously, that is, merely out of His bountifulness and goodness. It is not from His strict remunerative justice, but out of His grace. The very air we breathe in, the bread we eat, our common blessings, be they never so slight, are all from grace, and all from the tender mercy of the Lord.

You have in Psalm 136 the story of the notable effects of God’s mercy, and the psalmist concludes it thus: “He giveth food to all flesh; for his mercy endureth for ever” (v.25). Note that the psalmist not only ascribes those mighty victories, those glorious instances of His love and power, to His unchangeable mercy, but also our daily bread. In eminent deliverances of the Church we will acknowledge mercy — as we should, but we should do the same in every bit of food we eat, for the same reason is given all along. What is the reason His people smote Sihon, King of the Amorites, and Og, King of Bashan, and were rescued so often out of danger? “For his mercy endureth for ever.” And what is the reason He gives food to all flesh? “For his mercy endureth for ever.”

Mercy not only gives us Christ, and salvation by Christ, and all those glorious deliverances and triumphs over the enemies of the Church; but it is mercy which puts our food on the table, it is mercy that we taste with our mouths and wear on our backs. It is noteworthy that our Lord Jesus, when there were only five barley loaves and two fishes, “He lift up his eyes and gave thanks” (John 6:11) Though our provision be never so homely and slender, yet God’s grace and mercy must be acknowledged.

Here is some further evidence that it is certainly of the mercy of the Lord that He gives bread to the creatures. Consider who it is to whom God gives these mercies. He gives them (1) to those who cannot return any service to Him, and (2) to those who will not return any service to Him. Then, (3) when we are at our best we cannot deserve them, and (4) we deserve completely the opposite.

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