The Lords Prayer Part Two - Our Daily Bread

The Lord’s Prayer – Part Two “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10) As we look at Matthew 6:9-10 we see Jesus instructing us to set our minds aright as we begin our prayer. We are to present our prayers to God our Father. As our Father He is our Provider and Protector. He draws us near and finds joy in the fact that we are His. We next are to remember that He is in heaven. He sits on the throne of heaven where He sees and knows all things. He is all powerful and rules over our world. Thirdly, “hallowed is Your name.” Hallowed means holy, consecrated, sacred, unblemished, sanctified, pure and completely trustworthy. Hallowed is His name which in scripture means hallowed is His character. This type of beginning in prayer is transforming. It puts everything in perspective. We must realize to whom we are praying. He is our loving Father, who is mightier than any struggle we will ever face, and is more trustworthy than anyone we have ever known. Once our hearts are fixed on these truths our response joins with that of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will be yours be done.” Scripture tells us that this spirit of reverent submission was the reason that Jesus’ prayers were answered. “During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” Hebrews 5:7 It is this type of beginning in prayer that prepares our hearts to rightly commune with God. Jesus then continues to present the model prayer in Matthew 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread.” As we examine this verse it helps if we start at the end. We all understand the literal meaning of “daily bread,” but in this context it means much more. It is more than bread, or even food. Jesus is communicating the idea of daily sustenance. It is asking God for all that we will need to sustain us today, without even knowing for sure what the day will bring. For the poor it may mean providing them with the food and the shelter that they will need to sustain them physically. For those with a marriage on the verge of divorce they will need the grace and forgiveness that will hold them together for another day. For those who are facing important career decisions it may be wisdom and peace. It will be different for every person, but our God, who is intimately aware of all of our life situations can be trusted to meet us in the midst of our need. Even as we see in the life of the Apostle Paul, in the midst of his need the Lord said to him, “My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) This request for daily bread is also a call to a life of contentment and simplicity. A life of contentment that only requests the basic needs instead of our covetous wants. Needs that are essential to allow us to live a life that serves God and serves others. How often are our hearts drawn away by desires for the things of the world? Whether intentional or not we find ourselves lured by the promise of comfort, pleasure, security or prestige. In turn we begin to long for and even pray for things that have no significance in the kingdom of God. Our lives become so complicated and cluttered as we accumulate so many things and pursue so many others. At times we get so taken in by our desires that we even believe that they are needs. Here is a story that may help illustrate this point. A story is told of a large company that built a factory near a small, poor village. They built it and hired the villagers to work in the factory. The first couple of months everything went well, but after the fourth month fewer villagers were coming to work each day. By the sixth month almost all the villagers had stopped working. Frustrated and confused the supervisor from the factory went into the village to find his employees and see what had happened. Their answers went something like this, “We made enough money to buy what we needed. Why should we keep working?” The company thought about it and came up with a strategy. They started sending catalogs and advertisements into the small village. Eventually all the villagers came back to work because they had looked at the catalogs and now realized all the things that they “needed.” Are we that much different? Our desires have become “needs.” Our desires and ways of life have been so influenced by the culture around us that many times we have wandered away from the life of contentment and simplicity that God would have for us. The Apostle Paul’s words are also helpful at this point. “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13) We find a nice balance in the words of Agur son of Jakeh in Proverbs 30:8-9; “Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” God has created our needs so that we will realize our need for Him on a daily basis. We see a great picture of this in the story of the Israelites in the Old Testament. They had been freed from slavery in Egypt but were now wandering in the wilderness as nomads. In Exodus chapter 16 it tells how the people began to grumble and complain about the lack of food. In response God provided a substance He called Manna. It appeared on the ground every morning similar to morning dew. It was like Coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. It could be prepared by boiling or baking. God commanded that the people come out to gather it each morning, but only enough for that day. On the sixth day of the week they could gather extra for the Sabbath. But some did not obey. They gathered more than they needed and found that the next morning it had worms and filled their tents with a horrible smell. This daily gathering of Manna continued for 40 years and stopped the very day that they began to eat from the produce of the Promised Land. (Joshua 5:12) God used this gathering of “daily bread” to remind the people of Israel that they were needy, that they could not meet their own needs, that God knew their needs, and that God could be trusted to meet their needs. But they had to depend on God every day, for 40 years. These same principles apply to us. We will not pray for daily bread if we do not realize that we need it. We will not pray for daily bread if we are convinced that we can provide for ourselves. We will not pray for daily bread if we do not believe that God is aware of our needs. We will not pray for daily bread if we do not have faith that God will provide. God knows that being near to Him is the best place we can be. Because of this God has drawn us to Himself with daily needs that only He can meet. Give us “this day” our daily bread. This day. Here we see an emphasis on trusting God in the present. We cannot change the past. We cannot determine the future, but we can honor God in the present. That is what we see in the life of a young man named Joseph in the Old Testament (Genesis 37,39-46) . As a young man he had had dreams of grandeur. His future seemed bright, but his past was darkened when he was sold into slavery by his older brothers. So, in the present he was now a slave. In the midst of slavery scripture tell us that God was with him and blessed everything he set his hand to. He was promoted to administrator over all that his wealthy master possessed. He was then falsely accused of sexual advances towards his owner’s wife and was thrown into prison. Even there God was with him and he was given leadership responsibilities in the prison. Then Pharaoh had a dream and only Joseph could interpret it. Because of that he was promoted to second in command over all of Egypt. Now some might want to know the secret of his success, but in the story we can see that it was nothing more than honoring God in “this day.” He had not come to this position because of a well thought out career plan. Joseph just honored God in the present, one day at a time. God then orchestrated his days and fulfilled the purpose that God had for his life. As Joseph walked with God the Father his needs were met. That is the essence of this verse. Stay near to God and trust that He will meet your every need. Our other option is to live in rebellion against our heavenly Father. Like the runaway who searches for food to fill his hunger so we too live our lives desperately trying to find what is missing. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In John 6 35 Jesus said. . . “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” What is Jesus saying? To all the runaways of the world, He is not just the bread, or the food, but the sustainer of life. “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 Our Father waits for us with open arms. He knows us better than we know ourselves and yet loves us anyway. Today will you humble yourself and come home to your heavenly Father. If you already are a follow of Jesus Christ will you put away anything in your life that is keeping you from God’s best and surrender anew every area of your life to His will. If you are not yet a follower of Jesus Christ today will you turn from your sin and believe in Jesus Christ. As a child stays near to his father he receives all that he needs. In the same way, as we stay near to God through Christ, our every need will be met.