The Children's Bread ; Served on a Hot and Fresh Basis

Yesterday, I had this nostalgia about my trip to Paris a while back and I remembered eating at a restaurant where there was a display of all sorts of delicious patisserie and bread ranging from Toasted Sunflower Bread, Soft Honey Oat Bread, Finnish Wheat Rolls¸ Cinnamon Rolls, Pumpkin Banana Bread with Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting and all..... Mouth-watering recipes and long names you would agree. Before I start to salivate again, let me head on to the focus of this post already!  So I woke up this morning with the phrase “Children’s Bread” ringing in my ears and I pondered on it on my way to work. Of course, I remembered the phrase is in the bible but it suddenly occurred to me that there is actually a deeper meaning to this phrase in Jesus's sentence and it’s needful to understand what He meant.

Matthew 15:25”Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” 26 But He (Jesus) answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

A woman from Canaan who was a gentile had come around to meet Jesus to ask for healing for her daughter who was demon possessed and Jesus responded by saying  that it wasn't appropriate to give what belonged to the children out to the dogs. Hmmmn…. “Children’s Bread” What does this mean and what is the bread itself? The Bread was healing in this context and the children were the tribe of Israel He was sent to save. Jesus’s priority was his own; children of the kingdom and He was for starters going to channel his energy on them only. Needless to say the woman persisted and got her request granted; I am very interested in that phrase - The Children’s Bread!

Our God is the orchestrator of all beautiful and astonishing varieties and you will agree with me that if there is the children's bread as Jesus mentioned, it would come in assortments. If the Bread in that context was healing, something the body needed to survive, it would also encompass everything that pertains to living a good life such as prosperity, deliverance, marriage, fruit of the womb, peace of mind and every good thing the mind can conceive. Yes, every “good” thing because the bible says "every good and perfect gift come from above, from the Father of lights in whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning"(James 1:17). Now If the bakers of this world could offer such mouth-opening delicacies in different forms and manners, then God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, who gives the wisdom for all manner of enterprise and innovation is able to bless us in absolutely fantastic and diverse ways.

When you are a child of the kingdom, born again by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and accepting Him as Lord and Saviour, you automatically qualify for this “Children's Bread”.  As born again Christians we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and we are sons and daughters of the Most High. There is the divine apportionment that belongs to us and even though God opens His hands to satisfy the desires of all living being(Psalm 145:16),we are His priority! Yes you and I.

It is high time as Christians we stopped struggling to get the basic things of life. There is a way out for us, there is a blank cheque(check) given by the father, there is an inheritance for the redeemed; the Children's Bread reserved for us on a daily basis! We need to remember His desire for us is to prosper and be in health as our souls prosper. All things are made available to us in the kingdom and we can only possess them by Faith. No wonder Jesus taught His disciples to pray in Mathew 6: 11(Give us our daily bread) and he meant it to be daily indeed. The Bible says He DAILY loads us with His benefits. Psalm 68:19.

Exodus 16: 11-12 (Message version) God spoke to Moses, "I've listened to the complaints of the Israelites. Now tell them: 'At dusk you will eat meat and at dawn you'll eat your fill of bread; and you'll realize that I am God, your God.'" 13-15 That evening quail flew in and covered the camp and in the morning there was a layer of dew all over the camp. When the layer of dew had lifted, there on the wilderness ground was a fine flaky something, fine as frost on the ground. The Israelites took one look and said to one another, man-hu (What is it?). They had no idea what it was.16 So Moses told them, "It's the bread God has given you to eat.....

God demonstrated his ability to meet the needs of His children in the example of the Israelites when they wandered in the wilderness and as we know, He fed them for 40 good years with bread rained down from heaven on a daily basis and they were warned to pick just what would suffice for each household per day; Any thing left over till the next day got wormy and smelled bad! Is it not interesting that God has a storehouse from which He could meet our needs? He chooses whichever way He pleases to go about it. Unlike when he fed Elijah by a raven and also by a human being (the Zarephath widow), in the case of the Israelites, He fed them directly from the Store house of Heaven. I am in awe of this mighty God because as always, His ways are past finding out. If He feeds even the lions, the ravens according to Job 38:39-41, how much more you and I?

For everyone who is born again, reading this, there is a “Children's Bread” you are entitled to and it is a daily right. Meaning it is your right to constantly have your needs met: enjoy a good life, perfect health, beautiful family, good job and every good thing you desire. God is interested in blessing us with what we need to sustain ourselves and it should come in the morning(when we need them, not delayed blessings). He wants to satisfy us with His early mercies. For the Israelites, Bread was a necessity and God gave it to them in the morning on an “ongbona feli feli( Hot and fresh) basis; Early enough because when the sun comes out, in the heat of the day it melted the bread (verse 21 of Exodus 16).  His blessings, mercies, compassion are new every morning and great is his faithfulness! (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Taking this discussion a step further, we need to know that we are not expected to remain at the state of having our needs met only, we must be a blessing to everyone around too. It is His will for us to be in a state of overflowing blessings. He blesses us to be a source of blessing to the world. Our Father of Faith; Abraham was prosperous, Isaac waxed great and for Jacob it was recorded that “the man grew exceedingly prosperous”. Since we are the seeds of Abraham, we are partakers of the same covenant that worked for him and above all, we operate in a better covenant through Christ. If we would trust God enough and walk in the Abrahamic example of Faith, we qualify for these huge blessings and much more.

Matthew 7: 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11If you then,being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

The parameters for enjoying God’s blessings include (but not limited to)-Faith, Dedication, Trust, Diligence, Obedience and then we can say Lord give us this day our CHILDREN’S BREAD. Have you wondered why in Matthew 6: 33 Jesus admonished us to seek His kingdom first and all other things would be added to us? It is not a problem at all to get God to fulfil His own part of the deal; the question is if we are willing to fulfil our own part. Are we ready to seek Him first and make Him the Number one in our affairs? Hmmmm………I leave us to answer that question.  If you are not a child of the kingdom yet, it’s just a step away. Believe in your heart Christ came to die for you, ask him to forgive your sins and accept Him as your Lord. This bread becomes yours too!

The Children’s Bread in different varieties is ours, oh yes I know it’s ours!

The Pen…..