Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

This morning I was talking with a Christian friend of mine by telephone. We were sharing our need for an income and our desperate job hunts, that have not been successful.
Since November of last year, I know that I have applied for or sent out nearly a 100 resumes and applications. No response, or whatever response, they never followed through. I have even used networking as they suggest trying to obtain a good position once again. All to no avail, as of yet. As we ended our conversation, we had come to that place reminding each other, that God has promised to give us "our daily bread". I wished only those around us understood these things.
It is hard to make others understand the plight you feel you are in, when they just seem to think, that you aren't trying. They think surely you would have been hired by now if you were really looking. Just look at all the job ads in the newspaper.
I have attempted to gain positions at the bottom rung of the ladder as well as those that I am qualified, skilled and experienced at, to no avail.
I was even beginning to believe I might have a former employer for whatever reason that may be black balling me from obtaining future employment. I went so far as to obtain someone to do a reference check on me, to find that my employers were providing me an excellent reference.
The only reason I can conclude that I am not receiving calls is my age. Now, you ask, "how do they know your age?"
It is easy to ascertain that from a resume or application by looking at your education and when you graduated.
I will in 11 days be 54 years old. August 12, 2007, I will have lived long enough and grown wise enough to recognize pure and simple discrimination by age.
It is one of the most exercised discriminatory unwritten policies of HR departments today. Many men my age find themselves losing jobs even to only find out later they hired someone to replace them that are much younger.
Furthermore, the latest practices of HR departments is to run a credit check and in some cases they manage to even obtain your health information. If you have reached my age, and have perfect health, you have been blessed by God. If you reached my age, and don't believe in the credit of this world, and yet somehow you obtained a good credit reference check, then you are blessed beyond what is imaginable in this day and age of high medical cost. I have some poor credit, and I will admit it.
My credit was wiped out in 1996, when my first wife became ill with a problem that she was born with that is called "AVM's" or "Arterial Venous Malformations".
I have a good friend who understands this malformation of veins in the brain. This is not a very well known problem by most. He understands because he will be crippled the rest of his life because of it. It results in strokes and aneurysms. He has the full extent of this rare defect one can be born with and what it results in.

I had credit in those days, because I like most had fallen into this world's enticements, for things material beyond our needs.
I was unemployed due to our office shutting down with WorldCom's mass assimilation of taking all the small companies they had acquistioned and moving them into one big location far away from where I lived. We were struggling with threats from the IRS on our taxes and being harassed by those we had obtained loans from. We had no choice but to file, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to find relief. It has ruined my credit since. Though in less than two years we had it discharged to try to pay the bills we owed again once we had both gone back to work. You never recover once you are under the slavery of debt. My bad credit is still there. Why any of us, ever get conned into playing God, I will never understand. Thos offering credit ask us to play God, as if we know what tommorrow will bring, as if we know whether we will be alive, working, earning the same amount of money the day we signed on. It doesn't matter how small amount or large amount, if you owe it and can't pay it because we can't control our future, they want it and they want it NOW! Thus Jesus told us not make oaths, but to keep our yea, yea, and our nay, nay. Thus the whole Word of God tells us not to be in debt. There is a difference in having to pay our electric or our water, or telephone on a monthly basis. These an be argued though that they too are not necessarily basic needs. The Word tells us to be content with food and clothing because we brought nothing into this world and we can't carry anything out. When one lives on this basis, knowing God will provide, we will not be anxious for tommorrow. We will thank God for what He provided today. We will just work today for our daily bread and not live our lives for our future greeds or those things that have so enslaved us to them now. We are to live the simple life described in Ecclesiastes, as anything beyond that is greed and results in a life of vanity of vanities.
To enjoy the fruit of your labor and to fear God is the wise mans conclusion. All else is useless and leads to an unhappy life.

The question is, what does credit have to do with work ability, skills, devotion, job experience? Why is it this world thinks that if you are one to enslave yourself to credit cards and other debt that makes for a good employee? Why has this world become so enamored with the idea of being enslaved to jobs from daylight to darkness to have things that don't matter? Why does this world think it is a wonderful thing to sacrifice relationships with others for the sake of the dollar? More relationships are destroyed over wanting more or thinking you don't have enough of something than one an imagine. More divorces and family break ups are over the worshipped dollar more than anything else.
Even in the car insurance industry, credit has become a criteria for obtaining lower rates versus, higher insurance rates. What does that having to do with driving skills, experience, longevity as a driver without accidents, etc.?
Our world has become sin sick with greed, money and power. The more you subscribe to these things the more likely you are to be a good job candidate. You better go in there on the interview and tell them you want to be a huge success and make a million by the end of the year or you just shot your opportunity at a job. You better go into an interview and tell the world what they want to hear.
Figure that one out! It isn't hard to conclude why.
I do my best to live on less than $120.00 per week. Sometimes less, sometimes just a little more, very little more. I get by, but only by the grace of God and other's help for shelter, some help me with my special needs like purchasing my medication, but they can't always help. I have Diabetes 2 (not under control), nerve deafness in my hearing, damaged kidneys, swollen prostrate like most older men. I also have had diverticulitis since age 45, and have had two heart attacks since than as well,Atrial Fibillation, and I also suffer from Crohn's Disease and Post Traumatic Stress, Fatigue Syndrome and at one time my physicians had me on 27 pills a day.
I quit everything but a about 3 medications. One, I couldnt afford them, two I couldnt function on them, and three, I did something outside of prescription treatment to help myself. I am still working on that to eliminate the three other mediations. However, the physical damage already done is done. Some of the problems are do to our lifestyles when young and many others are just flat due to we live in a world where everything we eat along with the air we breathe and the water we drink is polluted with chemicals and cancer calling agents.
For example I got my Crohns disease under control by no longer drinking milk. I did this because research has shown that though milk is homegenized and pastureized, it doesn't kill paratuberculosis which attack the small bowel resulting in infection in the lining of the bowel. Milk also has hundreds of antibiotics and other induced chemicals that can cause all kinds of serious illnesses. I quit it and it worked.

My little check I earn each week feeds me, and purchases gasoline to go to work or where I need to go when told by the Lord to do so, like visiting friends in need, helping the children, taking a friend to the doctors or wherever it may be, I still limit any travel for just my self. There are no pleasure runs, or driving around for fun or going to the store on a whim.

Yes, I have applied for even the minimal jobs, like working as counter help, cashiers, driving a vehicle for deliveries, even tossing news papers.
All to no avail.
I have begun to believe there is an unwritten rule that old people should be shot and put out of their misery or just left alone to die in loneliness. Whatever the prevailing attitude is, it is for real against the elderly worker in this country.

So, what do you do, you do what Christ told us to do, you pray "give us this day, our daily bread". You smile, you go on doing the best you can, you don't give up hope, and you thank God for every little gift he gives you to sustain your life.

My friend reminded me, of this when we spoke. We recalled that God has promised nothing more than our daily bread. Jesus taught us not to be anxious over these things, and taught us that God would provide our needs. I have to admit He does provide for my basic needs. I am not living under a viaduct, like many Americans are, I am not on the soup line, like so many Americans are, I am not having to panhandle for my daily bread. God brings it to me, and I am thankful for it.

Here is my prayer which can be found in two places in the Bible:

Lord do not make me so rich that I would forsake you,
but don't allow me to be so poor that I would steal.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us Lord of our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.

These last words from the Lord's prayer, provide us with much more wisdom then all the world could ever offer. I pray everyday that I live my life accordingly.

Today, I pray with emphasis, Give "US" this day our daily bread.
Not just in the physical sense Lord but what we need most in the spiritual "to forgive others who have sinned against us."
Give us your spirit of grace and mercy toward everyone we encounter in this life. Be it friend or foe, teach us Lord, that your bread provided contains nourishment for all areas of our life. Emotionally, spiritually and physically. Remind us that you are the great Creator of heaven and earth and all that we see or can encounter here, belongs to you and that nothing for you Lord is too hard.
Thank you this day, for giving me this day, and Lord let me do my very best with it, for your glory and not mine. Help me Lord not to be discouraged but to find encouragement by encouraging others in this life. Let me encourage all my brothers and sisters in all that I do and say this day.
Amen

Everyday is difficult, but our God never promised us a "rose garden" without thorns.
The Word of God says, "that through much tribulation we enter the Kingdom of God".

That sure blows the Health, Wealth and Prosperity teachers theology away- doesn't it?

Also for those that believe that theology, they would have no need to pray "Lord give us our daily bread" if it is ours by faith in faith rather than faith in God.
If we can lay claim by words as if we were a god to prosperity materially, and demand from God something he never promises, then where does the tribulation ever come in? God isn't there for our beckon call on greed. He is there for our care and nourishment as His creation. We are not gods, as Copeland likes to tell everyone.
Kenneth Copeland fell for the oldest lie told in the garden of Eden which started this whole mess in the first place.

No, my prayer is "Give us this day our daily bread" That means dependence on a Sovereign God,a Holy God and not a little god that I control in my toy box for my sake and fleshly pleasures, like so many of these false prophets proclaim.

"Give us this day our daily bread"

Dr. J.