Requesting God's Provision

Introduction

Joe and I with the Sears catalog…

Sometimes our prayers look a lot more like Joe and me with the Sears catalog: a list of our wants. Obviously, we don’t want our prayer life to be like that.

However, Jesus also tells us to ask, and we shall receive. So how do we balance these to seemingly contradictions? We will look at that this morning.

We are continuing our study on the Lord’s Prayer.

We’ve seen the first part, praising God…

Second, we looked at yielding to God’s will…

Now, we will look at the part of prayer that we are more familiar with, requesting God’s provision.

Matthew 6:11

Timeless Truth: Our prayers should include requests that God would provide for our personal needs and the needs of others.

Give us…

This is a petition for God’s provision.

It recognizes that everything is a gift from God and that God is the One who we can come to at all times.

Something to notice, however, is that is prayer comes directly after Jesus saying, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is important to hold in our minds because His will matters more than our wants and desires.

1 John 5:14-15 – “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

We are also praying for a gift, not something we are entitled too.

As Americans we are incredibly entitled, and this is especially true when it comes to our spiritual life. Many of us live as if God owes us something.

Yet, if we will begin to see everything that we receive as a gift and that none of it is owed, it will free us up to experience real joy when we are blessed.

As one writer said, “In this petition we ask for bread, not cake.”

James 4:2-3- “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

…this day...

“this day” focuses our attention on looking to God for our daily needs.

Each and every day, we should bring our requests to God, not just occasionally.

When it comes to prayer, practice makes permanence...

…our daily bread…

Notice that there a wider focus with the word “our” than just personal. Our prayers ought to be for our personal needs, but also for the needs of others.

This is why our prayers should not only be for ourselves, but for others as well...

Interestingly, the Greek word translated “daily” isn’t found anywhere else in the entire Bible, or even in ancient Greek literature, which makes it difficult to translate.

Scholars posit the following four options:

The bread of today;

The bread of tomorrow

Just enough bread to keep us alive, and no more;

The bread we need

I argue, however, that when we consider the way this prayer was prayed in Aramaic (the language of Jesus), it is likely a cry that God will give us bread that doesn’t cease, meaning that we will not fear lacking what we need, because God will give us exactly what we need.

This actually accounts for all four of the translations (today, tomorrow, enough, and all we need).

Bread…

Throughout the Bible, bread is more than food. It represents our most basic needs.

It would take Jesus audience back to God’s provision of manna for Israel during their forty years of wandering in the desert.

So, the idea of only providing what they needed one day at a time teaches the importance of daily dependence on Him.

As Iain Campbell well stated, “By asking God for ‘our daily bread’, we acknowledge that all our material possessions are his to give and his to withhold.”

The generation of people who depended on God’s provision of manna in the wilderness were always one day away from starvation…yet, they never starved because God always provided for their needs.

So, this prayer is really a call for trust in God to provide for our most basic needs.

Additionally, it’s a reminder to adjust our hearts to living simply, not in the worldly excess that so defines our culture today.

We need to learn to pray that we would be satisfied with God’s provisions, regardless of the degree of those provisions.

Proverbs 30:8–9 ESV

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.

1 Timothy 6:8 ESV

But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

What do we do when we run into times of our lives when it seems like our prayers are not being answered? Look at what Scripture says:

Check your motives – James 4:2-3 – “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

So, what are my true motivations behind what I’m praying?

Check your spiritual condition – Isaiah 1:15-17 – “When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s case.”

Is there unconfessed, unrepentant sin in my life?

Sometimes God will withhold blessings so we will work on turning from a sin.

Check your doubt – James 1:6-7 – “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”

Do I really believe He is listening, or am I full of doubt?

Check your faith – Matthew 21:22 – “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Along with the last one, do I really have faith that He hears my prayers and responds to them?

Pray for others – Job 42:10 – “And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.”

Sometimes the best approach is to focus on praying for others instead of ourselves.

Pray for matters of spiritual significance – Colossians 1:9-12 – “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

Most of the prayers throughout the Bible are focused on things that have eternal value. Am I praying for things that truly have spiritual value, or just value to me right now?

Timeless Truth: Our prayers should include requests that God would provide for our personal needs and the needs of others.