OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONAL FOR TODAY
Our Daily Bread for today is here. Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11).
The word of God is food to the spirit man. “Eat and digest” the word of the Lord for today and let its unchanging power nuture your faith and help in your daily walk to Christ.
The Topic of Our Daily Bread For 16th April 2025 is “A Pastry War”
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 30-31: Luke 13:23-35
Memory Verse: Ecclesiastes 7:9
Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.
Today’s Scripture & Insight: Ecclesiastes 7:3-9
Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, asks: “Who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow” (6:12 NLT). The book contains some odd and morbid advice about life’s brevity, adversity, and festivity (7:1-14). One’s death is better than one’s birth (v. 1); attend funerals, not parties (v. 2); and think about life’s pains, not pleasures (v. 3). Since “death is the destiny of everyone” (v. 2), Solomon advises us to live life with our end in mind, pondering life’s brevity instead of pursuing festivity, “for sadness has a refining influence on us” (v. 3 NLT). In light of life’s brevity and adversity and death’s reality, we’re to decide how to wisely spend our time. Even as we experience the uncertainties of life—adversity and prosperity, good times and bad times—God is in control (vv. 13-14).
By: K.T. Sim
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ODB MESSAGE FOR TODAY
Of all the foolish things that have led to nations going to war, could a pastry be the worst of all? In 1832, amid tensions between France and Mexico, a group of Mexican army officers visited a French pastry shop in Mexico City and sampled all the baker’s goods without paying.
Though the details get complicated (and other provocations compounded the troubles), the result was the first Franco-Mexican War (1838-39)—known as the Pastry War—in which more than three hundred soldiers died. It’s sad what a moment of anger can incite.
Many human conflicts—shattered marriages and ruined friendships—are rooted in some form of unmanaged anger. Selfishness and power plays, unresolved misunderstandings, slights and counter-aggression—it’s all foolishness. So often, our ill-advised perceptions or reactions lead to destructive anger. Yet Ecclesiastes offers wisdom: “Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9).
It’s foolish to have a short fuse and be easily provoked to anger, especially when God offers a better way—perhaps through “the rebuke of a wise person” (v. 5). Pursuing wisdom, we can “let the peace of Christ rule in [our] hearts” (Colossians 3:15). We can live in wisdom and forgiveness as He helps us.
By: Winn Collier
Reflect & Pray
Where have you given in to foolish anger? How did it hurt you or others?
Our Daily Bread 2025 Devotional is written by Con Campbell and published by Our Daily Bread Ministries. Read more
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