Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

July 30, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE

TO SEND OUR BREAD BACK

Ecclesiastes 11:1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

One thing about bread, if you are going to make it yourself, it takes a little work and time. We have fancy machines now that make it a little easier at home, but baking bread takes time. God uses “bread” as an illustration here because you and I feel that we have worked hard for “our bread”. We get up early to go to a job that we do not necessarily love, we pay bills, buy insurance, try to get enough to get groceries, and struggle to save enough to maybe go on vacation this year. We see what money we have as “my bread”. God even calls it “thy bread”, but everything we have really belongs to God. God is the one that gave it. We could not do anything to make money, keep money, or accumulate money without God. We owe everything to God. How dare we think that it is “my bread”.

So, God says to “Cast thy bread upon the waters”. “Cast” means to “separate from your treasury and care”. You and I have a hard time letting it go. We will come up with every reason and excuse to hold on to it. I would love to give you some principles today about “casting” our bread:

CASTING YOUR BREAD REQUIRES TRUST

Casting on waters means that you are relinquishing ever bit of control and giving our resources over to God’s control. That means where it goes is controlled by God. That means how it will be used is controlled by God. That means how your needs will be met without this bread is controlled by God. That means whether or not it comes back is controlled by God. You see, casting our bread upon waters requires trust in the sovereignty of God. That is what is so hard about it. It is difficult letting it out of our control, but when you and I really trust God, we will.

CASTING YOUR BREAD REQUIRES PATIENCE

God says that once you and I cast it, we will find it “after many days”. God does not say that our faithfulness in giving will be rewarded immediately. God just says that it will be rewarded eventually. Sometimes it is immediate and sometimes it is not.

* Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

This passage says, “it shall be measured to you again”, not “maybe”. We will continue in the next devotional with more principles, but I want to encourage you today to consider “casting your bread upon the waters”. It will require trust, and it will require patience, but if you want God to be able to bless your life miraculously and faithfully, it will require you to “cast thy bread upon the waters”. You can choose to just hold onto it, keep it, accumulate it, and be stingy with it. But dear friend, if you do, you will miss the miracle of God bringing it back to you in miraculous ways.