Give Them This Day Their Daily Bread

2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—
9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

Once again our nation has been rocked by the violence that happened in Charlottesville, VA. Last Sunday our pastor gave us this heartbreaking reminder; “hate is LOUD and love, by it’s very nature is soft. We’ve come to be a society that responds more to rebellion and violence than we do to the Good News of the Gospel.” His words were not a condemnation for others but a challenge to us that we need to love loudly.

That made it hard to read this chapter about the destruction of those who’s doctrine is hate and deception and discover my hope was for the judgment God has reserved for them. Hate IS loud. But…I swear by God’s name, rather than enjoy Peter’s words that God will wipe them off the face of the earth, I will not let the circumstances of broken people in a broken world make my faith unproductive and ineffective!

I am going to follow Jesus’ teaching from Luke 11. “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.”

“Shameless udacity” in prayer is the only way I can LOVE LOUDLY.

JESUS, DEAR FRIEND, GIVE THESE HATEFUL, DECEPTIVE PEOPLE BREAD THAT CAN CHANGE THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS SO THEY CAN BE SAVED AND BE BLESSED…too! Can you hear me Lord?