The Lord’s Prayer (Part 5 – Our Daily Bread)

Introduction

• One acknowledgment, and six petitions – that is the pattern that Jesus gave us in the model prayer in Matthew 6.
  Today, we bring our attention to the fourth petition, v11 – Give us this day our daily breadIt is now, after three magnificent petitions for the preeminence of God, for His glory to be displayed on the earth and in our lives; it is now that we petition the Lord for our daily needs, the things that we otherwise would rush to in our prayers.
  There is a great lesson to be learned here, beloved. When Jesus gives us this priority to our petitions, we are forced to reckon with the reality that our desire is not for the glory of God, but for the comfort, protection, and satisfaction of our own lives, of our own flesh.
  Therefore, when I pray these days, I am forced to wonder why the desire for God’s glory is not the imminent desire of my heart. For if it were so, then why are my prayers always about me?Now, I say this with caution because I don’t want you to go away thinking that any prayer that first addresses a pressing need is a bad prayer. That is not true. It is possible that you might be seeing many of these petitions being met and a few that are under a great strain, and so you might rush to pray for those. I am not speaking against that.
  But I am warning you against the general trend of our prayers, of our priorities.
• This petition sums up all our physical needs, our sustenance, under the phrase daily bread. And Jesus will expand on God’s kind provision to us of such needs in just a few verses later in this same chapter.
  Let me remind you beloved, that Jesus is teaching us in this chapter about practicing righteousness, or godliness, or holiness, or obedience not to be seen by others but to be seen by your Father in heaven. And the three main areas that Jesus addresses, is giving (our generosity), praying, and fasting.
  What He is centrally establishing is that the pursuit of holiness is not a search to satisfy our flesh, but a pursuit of glorifying God. And we can do this only by looking away from us and toward Christ.
  So, here’s what I want to do today.
  I want us to take a closer look at this fourth petition, but only making a few references to the upcoming verses in this chapter, and God willing, come to each one of those verses as we continue our expository series.
  However, this verse here, in itself, teaches us much about how we are to pray for our needs.

Exegesis

• v11 – Give us this day our daily bread
  • Give
    • What a hopeful verb! Give!The first and most important thing to realise when praying for your needs is that God is the Giver. He is not just someone who gives a lot or the most, He is the one who gives everything.James 1:5 – If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. Matthew 7:11 – 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!James 1:17 – 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

      Psalm 37:4 – 4  Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

      The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is about God’s generosity to us.
      His greatest generosity was displayed in the giving of His only begotten Son.

      John 3:16 – 16 “For God so loved the world,9 that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 

      Romans 8:32 – 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all,
      how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

      The ultimate Giver.

      Acts 17:24-25 – 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,3 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 

      That is why Jesus goes on in this chapter to teach that we are not to be anxious about our needs, but that we are to

      Matthew 6:33 – seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

    • Do you see why this verse in Matthew 6:33 is a stunning revelation? We all have those days when we consider the growing responsibilities in our lives and feel that the only way we’ll be able to sustain in the coming future is with a better salary, or a marriage, or a different job, or higher education.And the Bible simply says, no. Do not be anxious, instead seek His kingdom and righteousness.One of the arguments I hear in response to the phrase, “God will provide”, is “Do you expect God to simply drop things on your lap? You have to do your part, and God will do His”.
      I don’t entirely agree with this thought.
      Because most people mean something entirely different when they say “your part”. What is my part? Well, the Bible is clear – seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.
      • Here are two phrases that we’ve studied in the past weeks.
        The kingdom of God – which is primarily the rule of Christ, but secondarily, the realm (not of this world) and people (fellow saints in Christ).
        Tell me, brothers and sisters, how does one seek first the kingdom of God?
        [Elaborate, with examples of job needs, food needs, and any other need]
      • What about righteousness? In the given context of this chapter, we see that we ought to practice righteousness. Praying, Fasting, Giving, and Obeying God’s word in every way.Deuteronomy 8:3-6 – 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word1 that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 
    • It must not be a strange thing among us beloved, to know that God is the one who gives us everything. It is the best anxiety removing, depression destroying hope out there. That your God is your provider.
      It is He who gives you the needs and the desires of your heart.
  • us … our
    • Now, to the next word of this petition – us.
      I find it interesting that after encouraging us to go into our inner rooms and pray to the Father in secret, without other people, Jesus teaches us a prayer that starts with “Our” Father, and not “My Father”.
      That even in our personal prayers in the inner room, alone with the Lord, our words in prayer carry each other and not just our selfish petitions.
      It is not, give me this daily bread. In fact, none of the petitions in this prayer that are aimed at our needs are made just for the individual praying. Even in the personal prayer that the Lord teaches us, we carry our fellow believers with all our petitions.Philippians 2:3-4 – 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others.[How difficult a thing this is].The Lord’s prayer presupposes a community context for the one praying. You cannot pray the Lord’s prayer without other believers involved in your life. You can’t pray this prayer without fellowship.
  • this day… daily
    • Our cry to the Lord for His help and provision is a daily affair.
      This shouldn’t be surprising given that our needs are a daily affair. No matter what we are in desperate need of, beloved, we are always so good at needing something else.
      Our needs never stop, but neither does God’s provision. But here’s what we have to understand – this, is a daily affair.
      At the end of this chapter, Jesus says in v34 – 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
      
    • So much of our anxiety will be taken away if we simply stop worrying about tomorrow. One of the biggest lies of the enemy is to get you to worry about things to come, instead of working on things that are already here. This makes people anxious and depressed.
      Stop looking to tomorrow people, look to the here and now.
    • Then, must we never look to the future? No, we can, but only as long as we do not become anxious. We must learn to live well today and think about tomorrow only in anticipation to live life better tomorrow than we did today.
    • Now, this also means that the Lord’s prayer is a daily affair. Since needs are every day, so the need for prayer is also, every day.
      It is the business of the Christians to pray every day, for himself/herself and for those around them.
  • daily bread
    • The specific needs that are described by this phrase – daily bread, is not talking only about food. Bread is symbolically seen as a representation of all our physical needs.
      Whether it be food, or clothing, or shelter, or a wife/husband, or a good government, or peace, or health, or money.

• • • This is a daily affair, and our hope is in the realisation that neither the wisdom of man nor his strength is the giver of these things. It is God alone who gives.
    • Beloved that frees us to seek Him first in everything that we do. No, your job security is not in keeping your boss happy, but in keeping your God happy. For if you seek Him and His righteousness, then your boss will be blessed by your work.
    • So, there is no need to over-spiritualise this petition by calling daily bread, the word of God. Though, as we read in Deuteronomy, all these physical needs put together do not satisfy the Christian soul, for he does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.That is not to say that physical needs are not important, but the physical needs in and of themselves are worthless needs. We need God’s word in our lives.

Conclusion

• We are truth seekers, righteous warriors, and ambassadors of a kingdom that is not of this world.
• Our war is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of darkness, against the dark spiritual forces in the heavenly places.

• God alone is our provider, who gives us everything we need and fulfills our righteous desires. Therefore we go to Him for everything and trust in His providence and His timing.
• One of the primary means by which God provides us our physical needs is by us praying.James 4:2-3 – 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 

• The mature Christian is one who’s growing priorities are first the preeminence of His God, and only then does he care for his own well-being.Martin Luther – A person should work in such a way that he remains well and does no injury to his body. We should not break our heads at work and injure our bodies. . . . I myself used to do such things, and I have racked my brains because I still have not overcome the bad habit of overworking. Nor shall I overcome it as long as I live.