The Model Prayer: Our Daily Bread
Jesus takes our physical needs seriously. In the Model Prayer
He teaches us to look to our heavenly Father to supply our immediate needs. Jesus
encourages us to continually depend on God for all the essentials in our daily life.
Whatever is necessary to sustain life is what we are to request.
The second half of the prayer moves from God’s holy name,
God’s kingdom and God’s will to the provision of our personal needs in vv.
11-13. Jesus tells us to pray for life’s necessities, forgiveness of sins, and
deliverance from temptation and evil.
“Give us today our daily bread” (v. 11). God wants us to
pray for whatever we need to sustain our physical lives including food.
“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from
above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting
shadow” (Jas. 1:17).
In Matthew 6:33 the context is referring to food, clothing, physical
needs, etc. Jesus said instead of worrying over these things, “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all
these things will be added to you.” Take one day at a time and trust these needs to
the Lord. Have you been out searching for a job lately? Commit your need to the Lord and
ask Him to guide you in that search.
During the time in which Jesus lived women went out
daily purchasing the food for the family that day. Jesus teaches us to
pray daily for God's provisions for live.
Perhaps Jesus had in mind the
Israelites starving in the wilderness, and God's provision of manna, one day at a time. He
was teaching His people to trust Him for one day's supply of food. There was always enough
supply for their daily needs for forty years!
Our personal needs of
security, significance, and sufficiency can only be genuinely and fully met in a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. All that we need to function effectively as persons is at
any given moment fully supplied in a vital relationship with Christ and in whatever He
chooses for us daily. We worry about these needs because of a sense of inadequacy. But
Christ is adequate for all these needs in our lives. “Christ in you is the hope of
glory.”
Has Jesus Christ become your daily bread? He is the Bread of Life, so
that rules out all possibility for unsatisfied spiritual hunger. Jesus said, “I am
the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will
never thirst” (John 6:35).
Bread is a necessity for life. Without bread people die. Jesus is the
One person whom men cannot do without. He has and will graciously provide all you need in
life. You can never exhaust Him in this life or in eternity. Are you feasting upon Him
daily? Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us today our daily bread” because “I
am the bread of life.” All we need to do is to come to Him daily and trust Him.
Are you in the habit of praying daily, “Give us that spiritual
bread that comes down from heaven for today”? God has promised to provide our earthly
needs. That is a minor problem for Him. We need not be anxious about this and direct our
attention on our major need for Him to feed us spiritually every day from His Word.
Jesus is teaching us to trust in our heavenly Father who loves and
cares for us, take one day at a time, and not worry about the unknown future (Jas. 1:17;
Ps. 37:25; Prov. 6:6-11; 2 Thess. 3:10; Gal. 6:10; 2 Cor. 9:6-15).
We pray for "bread" to sustain us and God the Father, the
Creator and Sustainer provides. We ask for "forgiveness" and God the Son, Jesus
Christ our redeemer and Savior cleanses us of all sin. We ask Him to "deliver us from
evil" and we are brought into the presence of God the Holy Spirit, our Comforter and
Strength.
The apostle Paul wrote, “Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to
God” (Phil. 4:6). And a little later in the same chapter he said, “I can do all
things through Him who strengthens me. . . And my God will supply all your needs according
to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (vv. 13, 19).
Great is Thy faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided--
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
The Lord God is adequate for all of our needs in life. Does
your experience with Him bear that out? Mine does. In more than forty years of ministry I
have watched Him provide. He is able and willing when we call upon His name (1 Cor. 1:9;
Isa. 49:7-15; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Cor. 1:18; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Thess. 3:3; Psa. 23:1).
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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