Jesus was asked, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority” (Mt. 21:23)? We are no different when it comes to seek help or understanding. We have experts and specialists on everything, even weather predictors. With one of them, nature played havoc and he asked for a transfer to another region because the climate did not agree with him. I have experienced that change because of bread. The Russians transferred me at the age of nine to the Germans, with my family, in January 1940 to another region, where we had to raise bread for the Nazis. It was because of our familiarity with farming, customs, technology and language, that we were traded back to Germany. The people from the Reich did not qualify.

Love is the younger sister to bread and without bread love cannot exist. It was one of the first and hardest lessons I was taught as a young minister. With my background as a displaced person by World War II, I had forgotten how important bread had been for my family. A young man had his hope set on the daughter of a reputable deacon. The young man had two hard-working brothers in leadership positions in my church, and I assumed the young man was of the same disposition. The young lady had doubts about her admirer and he said that he simply could not live without her. I, the firm believer in love, convinced them that love would iron out their differences. He was a lover, but not a bread earner and three months later, he left his wife. Divorce, at that time, for my people was outright shameful. After that experience, bread came first in my counseling sessions with young lovers.

Prayer is the tie that binds our hearts and minds into a human family, not necessarily Christian. I have friends that do not profess to be religious; but their behavior, even their language, is exemplary. They know, who I am and even ask me to say a prayer in their behalf, because prayer makes us feel for each other, and it enriches our lives, at least it does mine. Prayer is a line to the richest treasure the world has to offer, and that is to the heart of each other.

James, half –brother of Jesus, according to tradition, made his decisions on his knees. His knees became as hard as the soles of his feet. He wrote these words, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it should not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens have rain, and the earth produced its crops” (Ja. 5:16-18). Moses prayed, and manna and quails rained from heaven (Ex. 16). Jesus prayed and crumbs turned into loves and fish into bowls (Mk. 6:35-44).

John Mark’s account of the feeding of the five thousand was an answer to prayer. When Jesus told the twelve to feed the people, they must have prayed and sweated. That one feeding would have cost the twelve eight months of their wages, which they did not have. Who would extend them a loan for throwing a party to a people, that went into the desert. People do get stranded without being prepared. World War II stranded us and we, too, became desperate for food. Those that followed Jesus into a deserted place, wanted to know something about Him and He was not going to abandon them, or let them starve. What David said also applies to us, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up” (Ps. 27:10). Two classic examples were the life of Hagar, mother of Ishmael and Elijah fed by a ravens (Gen. 16, 21; I Ki. 17).

Jesus made this sobering statement, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praises from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the father. There is one that accuses you, namely Moses, in whom you trust. For if you had believed Moses you would also have believed me, because he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how shall you believe my words” (Jn. 5:43-47).

Jesus insisted that prayer should yield visible results. It is not just a Christian concept, but human nature demands it. In his Sermon on the Mount He said this, “If you then, who are 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” (Mt. 7:11)? King Hezekiah faced death. He prayed to the God of Israel and the Lord added fifteen years to his life (II Ki. 20:1-6). I, too, cried to the Lord when I was twelve, twenty-one and in my sixties with cancer and God granted me extensions. I am proof that the results of prayer are visible; not just because I am alive, but also with what I am doing to help others answer their own prayers.

I have come to realize, that I lacked insight into my petitions because I do not think l like a child. Jesus stunned the people in his day with these words, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth for hiding these things from the wise and understanding and revealing them to babes. Yes, Father, it pleased you to reveal your will to children” (Mt. 11:25-26).

Paul, the Gentile Apostle, wrote to his Roman Christians, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Ro. 13:8-10). Jesus was far more specific what we should pray for, after we have fulfilled some definite obligations. “And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses” (Mt. 6:12-15).

The second half of the prayer deals with human concerns for food. This one begins with our daily need for bread. Jesus told his disciple to pray thus: “The daily bread, give to us today.” How does God feed us daily? He does not sow or reap, nor does God grind the seed into flour and then bake it in an oven. How then does God feed man or even the animals? We are told that God takes care of the birds that neither sow nor reap or gather in barns (Lk. 12:24). Are the birds sitting in their nests and is the Lord carrying food to them? Of course, He does no such thing. Birds happen to be very busy. They spend most of their time gathering food. They even fight each other over a crumb. It appears, that the birds just exist to fill their little bodies. Man is not like that. He was created for a higher purpose than to gathering only food.