Prepare for Easter

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” Luke 4:4 NIV

Jerry and Janet Tanner tell us that there are hungry people all over Citrus County. They know these people by name and face, for they go into the woods and take them food and have coffee with them by the fire.

Through the Tanners, our church has had its eyes opened to need close at hand, and we have given from our plenty. We hope that the needy are encouraged by the food and that they understand that we give it out of hearts changed by the Lord God himself.

However, what about the “other” food – the other kind of bread Jesus is talking about. The New Testament in Basic English translates this verse, “Bread is not man’s only need.” Jesus’ bread doesn’t come from an oven. First we must ask ourselves if we have been so fed by the “bread of life” that we are spiritually healthy. Are we careful to see that we have a balanced spiritual diet daily? Romans 15:4 says, “Everything that has been written was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.”

We gave food to the needy out of our plenty. There’s also a spiritually hungry world out there. Do we have that kind of spiritual plenty that we can also give to others – the needy around us, even our friends and neighbors? Can we fill them with hope from God’s Word? Do we know it well enough to share it with those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Father, Create in us such a hunger for your Word that we can be filled and out of our plenty we’ll have much to give others. Feed us that we may be about your business of feeding others. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator