Today Our Daily Bread Matthew 6, Ps 122:1 & Prov 27:17-19

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Matthew 6:1-34
Teaching about Giving to the Needy
1"Take care! Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, because then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. 2When you give a gift to someone in need, don't shout about it as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I assure you, they have received all the reward they will ever get. 3But when you give to someone, don't tell your left hand what your right hand is doing. 4Give your gifts in secret, and your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.
Teaching about Prayer and Fasting
5"And now about prayer. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.
7"When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. 8Don't be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! 9Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored.
10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.
11 Give us our food for today, F45
12 and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.
13 And don't let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. F46
14"If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
16"And when you fast, don't make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, who try to look pale and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I assure you, that is the only reward they will ever get. 17But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. 18Then no one will suspect you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in secret. And your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.
Teaching about Money and Possessions
19"Don't store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. 20Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. 21Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.
22"Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. 23But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be!
24"No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
25"So I tell you, don't worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn't life consist of more than food and clothing? 26Look at the birds. They don't need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. 27Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not.
28"And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, 29yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you? You have so little faith!
31"So don't worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. 32Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, 33and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.
34"So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today.
FOOTNOTES:F45: Or for tomorrow. F46: Or from evil. Some manuscripts add For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
The secret place is key here. It is a place where who I am, is who I am. This is the real, undressed me. This is where my thoughts are, this is where I sort it all out and make the plans I make with myself, etc. In secret is intimate. Intimacy is defined well by saying, Into Me, You see. Into me, I see. Into me, He sees. What does He see? What do I let Him, or you or even myself see? Is there a gap there between Him and you; you and you; or you and others? Only intimacy will fill any and all of those gaps.
Prayer is simply communication with God, mere communication. It IS NOT a religious act, to satisfy some religious requirement! It is not reciting so many of the same prayers day after day after day. It is not begging God for anything at all. Prayer is simply this.
Do you know God loves you? If not you need to be introduced to His love, by His Spirit or by his Word or by a person who knows Him and loves to talk to Him.
If you know of the love of God and the price that ws piad on your behalf for the expression of this love, Do you love God at all? Do you want to find out more about Him? Then you come into conversation (prayer) with Him and tell Him those things. You say, things like, Thank You for your love, Thank You for paying my debts, Thank You for loving me and leading me here. I want to get to know You, You seem to be so loving, different than any other love anyone else has been able to show me of. I’m interested in coming to know more of who You are, what You’re like, and how You think, how You would act in situations I face daily.” These are heart-felt kinds of prayers, done in secret.
If you have this kind of conversation going on with God, you’ll go a very long way with Him.
God doesn’t want people to be reciters of His words or feel forced to love Him. He wants us to have a desire inside of us for fellowship with Him, as he does with us, a mutual relationship. When jesus says, don’t pray this way, he means, Oh man, you’ve got to come and meet My Father, You’ll be amazed! He’s amazing, he’s not like anyone you’ve ever met and he’s certainly not a militant tyrant who is requiring things of you. He wants to give you love and He loves to get yours in return.
If we do as the world does and store up treasures on earth, we show where our loyalties, hopes, dreams, trust lies. It is sad to god, but it will be tragic for us when we see that it was all a blink and all we lived for flees away in a moment. If we do not join the vision God has for eternity, we will have nothing in eternity, except a BIG thing which is life with God. We’ll build there, starting from point A, or maybe we’ll help another build, or whatever, but we may feel just a glimmer of “regret” (though I’m really not sure the feelings or emotions of natural regret dwell there)in how we could have helped impact a natural world and add to the kingdom of God both here and there.
Disentangle is a great word. What holds us here, what keeps us back from His presence, from prayer, from sharing our faith, from going into our world and loving people? What things have such a strong hold on us that we cannot do anything but either work for them or with them or maintain them above anything else we’d like to do or be involved with? How many excuses do we have that involve the making, keeping or bringing in of more things? Earthly things? How much dust collects on theses things? Isn’t it funny how natural man is made of dust, the enemy was set by God to eat dust, man’s curse was to tend dust and as an works for more and more things the dust collects on them?
THIS has everything to do with trust, absolutely everything to do with trust. So, where will our trust level be built up? Where can we turn up the volume on trust, lay down the excuses, get rid of the things that have entangled us? Separate ourtselves from worldly desires appetites and calls? How do we walk away from the world’s pull on us?
Back to the “Secret place”! Today.
Psalm 91 happens in the Secret place, but only to those who choose to live there, not visit every once in awhile, but dwell there with Him.

Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart. Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.