TAKE, BLESS, BREAK, GIVE
Kendra Intihar
Today's Scripture: “Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!” Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NLT)
Theme: Money is a test of character, not a source of happiness.
“BREAD”
Sometime in the 1930s, American vernacular got a new word for money: Bread. You could earn bread, you could spend bread, you could be in need of bread. “Bread” was the cool new way to talk about cash. It makes sense when you think about it. Bread is the universal food. It can be found in every country in the world and in every culinary tradition. It’s one of the things people all over the world, across generations, are most likely to purchase with their hard-earned money, so if our money is going to turn into bread, it stands to reason that somewhere along the way, people decided just to skip straight to the outcome and start referring to money as “bread.”
SECURITY, STATUS, HAPPINESS
We tend to put our faith in money – or “bread” – to bring us security, status, or happiness. The allure of these good things makes wealth easy to idolize, but Jesus says that we can’t serve both God and money. We must choose whether we will seek our sense of security in Jesus or in money. We must choose whether our status will be based on our economic situation or on Jesus’s declaration that we are His. We must choose whether we’ll find our ultimate happiness in accumulating and spending money or in Jesus, who created our hearts to desire Him. Putting our trust in money leads to misplaced priorities and spiritual emptiness, but that doesn’t mean that money isn’t a useful tool for accomplishing good ends in God’s kingdom.
THE BREAD FORMULA
Jesus had a pattern for what He did when He was in the presence of bread…the literal kind.
- When He fed the five thousand, He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it. (see: Matthew 14:19, Mark 6:41, Luke 9:16, John 6:11)
- When He fed the four thousand, He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it. (see: Matthew 15:36, Mark 8:6)
- At the Lord’s Supper, He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it. (see: Matthew 26:26, Mark 14:19, Luke 22:19)
- And on His way to Emmaus, with Cleopas, He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it. (see: Luke 24:30)
All of those Scripture references give us the exact same “bread formula” in the exact same order: take, bless, break, give. In fact, even Jesus Himself, the “Bread of Life,” TOOK Himself to earth, was BLESSED (Matthew 3:17), was BROKEN, and GAVE His life “as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
Take, bless, break, give.
As God increases our finances – our “bread,” as some might say, we can apply the pattern we have learned from Jesus in Scripture:
- Take the money God has given you.
- Bless the money you’ve received by giving thanks for His provision in your life.
- Break the money into parts that can be used by you and others for God’s glory.
- Give generously to those God puts in the path of your “bread.”
Make it Personal: Our “bread” belongs to the Lord. It’s not meant to satisfy or sustain us – only Jesus can truly do that. God has entrusted some of His vast resources to you. This week, commit to taking those resources, blessing them, breaking them, and giving them, according to the pattern Jesus showed us in Scripture.
Pray: Lord, thank You for blessing me that I might be a blessing to others. Help me to remember that everything I have ultimately belongs to You, and show me how I might give it back to You through my generosity to others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Read: Acts 20:35; Matthew 6:19-21
Weekly Memory Verse: “Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!” Ecclesiastes 5:10, NLT