Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals
Wednesday July 15 2026
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Matthew 6:11-Give us this day our daily bread.
Years ago, I remember a Gospel preacher making the powerful point in a sermon that prayer and obedience go together like opposite sides of the same coin. The illustration that he used was from this Scripture. He noted that we pray in faith that God will provide and bless us, but this doesn’t mean that we do not go ahead and plow the fields while waiting for the Lord to send us bread from Heaven. We gratefully pray in faith, realizing that God will bless our efforts and provide for us. Paul makes this point in his Second Epistle to our brothers and sisters at Corinth. He encourages them to remember that God will bless us and our efforts when we sacrifice wisely and obey what He teaches.
2 Corinthians 9:10-11-Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.
It is God Who supplies seed to the sower, and every blessing that comes from harvest. It is even God Who gives us the ability to work (Deuteronomy 8:11-18)! Faith, thanksgiving , obedience, and prayer go hand in hand together. A commentary I was reading recently made the same point about Joshua sending spies into the land of Canaan (Joshua 2).
Some have criticized Joshua for a lack of faith at this point, arguing that he should have depended upon God to deliver up Jericho. 5 But there is nothing in the text to suggest any criticism of Joshua here, and there is an important distinction to be drawn between trusting God and presuming how God is going to act. At this point, Joshua has had no intimation that Yahweh will deliver Jericho by miraculous means. He merely knows that Jericho’s capture is crucial to Israel’s entry into the land. Thus Joshua is here employing a known approach to find out information about the region of Jericho as well as the particulars that Israel will face in Jericho. Put simply, Joshua could presume that God would go with him in the taking of the land and he could do so with confidence; but he could not presume that the means by which God would act would be overtly miraculous. As such, it was right and proper that he take the appropriate steps. Likewise for believers today, we do not show less faith by assuming that God works mostly through more ‘natural’ means rather than through the miraculous. God may well do something miraculous, but it is presumption on our part to assume that God will act that way. So, when we are planning our work–whether it is the routine of weekly church life, a mission or anything else–we are right to trust the promises of God’s presence with us in Jesus, but since miracles are, by definition, somewhat unusual we do not presume on them as the basis for our work, even though we recognize that God in his grace may well grant them. Like Joshua, we will contribute all we can to the task before us, asking that God might bless our contributions, but also knowing that God can indeed do ‘far more abundantly than all that we ask or think’ (Eph. 3: 20). (David G. Firth, The Message of Joshua, 26 (Kindle Edition): Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic)
Whatever challenges are before you, pray in faith to God as you continue to walk wisely where He leads.
Father, thank You for Your provision and guidance. Bless us and walk with us each step of the way. Amen.
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