“Let the … rich (boast) in his humiliation” – James 1:10a

Scripture reading: Deuteronomy 8:1-20

We need food and a lot more besides that, to live. But when the Heidelberg Catechism is explaining why Christ taught us to ask God for our daily bread, it doesn’t say that it’s about physical survival, or even about having strength to do our work. Answer 125 says that Jesus taught us to ask God for our daily bread so that we learn to confess that He is the only fountain of all good.

When God gives us material gifts, His purpose is to teach us to trust Him and to be thankful. In Deuteronomy 8, Moses explained to Israel why the LORD had let them hunger and then fed them with miraculous manna in the wilderness. He says, He was “testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna … that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:2b-3).

Moses says the LORD used food and drink to discipline you the way a father disciplines his son. Discipline here means to train, to instruct, and this is God’s greatest purpose in giving us wealth: to teach us that we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. If we don’t learn that critical lesson, God’s good gifts can’t do us any good.

Suggestions for prayer

Ask the Lord to help you to learn the lesson that He wants to teach you in the material gifts He gives you, that you would learn that you live by every word that comes from His mouth.

Rev. Dick Wynia graduated from the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in 1986, and was ordained to the ministry in 1987. He has served four congregations, in Aylmer ON, Calgary AB, Wyoming ON and in Beamsville ON. After almost 37 years in active ministry, he recently became a minister emeritus. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. This devotional is made available by the Nearer To God Devotional team, who also make available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com.