There are many worried people in the world today, especially the USA. The reason: the “economy” has taken a serious downturn.
The giant car makers, GM, Ford, Chrysler, are feeling the pinch.
Mervyns, a big and popular clothes store chain, is closing up its shops.
Many other shops and eateries are giving up, and business leaders are frankly worried.
It’s trite just to say, “Don’t worry; all will be well.” Rather, it’s time for some prayerful thinking.
We may be entering a really serious economic depression. This writer remembers 1929-31 when we were sometimes hungry for simple food. The great car makers came out with some really nice new models; but we couldn’t buy one. My father had to work for a dollar a day; and I mowed nice big lawns for a quarter. (Maybe we weren’t very smart!) But let’s read the Bible:
(a) The Lord “suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, ... that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (Deut. 8:3).
(b) This is a deep insight into how the Lord in heaven views our economic “depressions” down here on earth: He “suffers” them!
(c) He has a purpose in “suffering” them: to teach us something valuable to learn.
(d) Yes, of course, He loves us; but His love is serious—it includes valuable tuition.
(e) The Lord gives a serious warning about our common, everyday eating:
(f) If we gobble our food down thoughtlessly (easy for us to do!), without appreciating the infinite cost that the Son of God paid to make it possible for us, “we eat and drink damnation” to ourselves, “not discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Cor. 11:20, 29).
(g) Thus simple daily living impinges on eternity; we are never far from judgment.
(h) But that’s Good News for anyone whose heart appreciates the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love (agape) that drove the divine Son of God to His cross, to die our second death.
(i) Let your heart be “enlarged” (Psalm 119:32) to contemplate, to “comprehend” what it cost Him to save you (Eph. 3:18)!
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
------------------------------
