Praying Like Jesus: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
Father, hallowed be your name.+++Your kingdom come.+++Give us each day our daily bread.+++And forgive us our sins,++++++for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.+++And do not bring us to the time of trial.
Focus
Jesus taught us to pray Give us this day our daily bread. When we pray in this way, we are set free from the pretense that we are fully self-sufficient. We are reminded of just how much we depend on God, even for the ordinary things we need to be alive. Plus, when we ask for daily bread, were also looking forward to the coming of Gods kingdom, which is portrayed in Scripture as a lavish banquet. Were saying, in effect, God, give us right now a foretaste of the justice, peace, and love of your future kingdom.
Todays devotion is part of the series Following Jesus Today.
Devotion
At first glance, the meaning of Give us each day our daily bread doesnt seem terribly complicated. It appears to be a straightforward request for God to give us the food we need to survive. This petition may harken back to the Exodus, when God fed the Israelites each day with mannadaily bread from Heaven, if you will. Though God doesnt usually provide food in such a miraculous manner, asking for daily bread acknowledges that everything we have, including our ordinary food, ultimately comes from the Lord.
Reflect
To what extent do you regularly sense your dependence on God?
What helps you to realize just how much you need God, even for your daily bread?
Act
Pray
Jesus Christ Is The Bread Of Life
Above all, remember that we have Him of whom manna was a type and symbol, the very Bread of Life, the Redeemer.
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. . . .
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
I am that bread of life.
Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
I bear you my witness of the living reality of the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, and of the infinite power and reach of His Atonement. Ultimately, it is His Atonement, His grace, that is our daily bread. We should seek Him daily, to do His will each day, to become one with Him as He is one with the Father . I bless you that as you seek it from Him, your Heavenly Father will grant you your daily bread, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
1. Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 , 124.
Help Us Give Up Our Trust In Creatures And Put Our Trust In You Alone
Another reason why we should pray for God to take care of all our physical needs is so that we will be able to give up our trust in mere creatures and put our trust in God alone.
As Christians we are very fond of saying the words âGod will provide.â And these words become easier for us to say when we have high paying stable jobs, when our business are booming or when we have a steady stream of good paying clients. But what if we lost our jobs? What if our business flops or our clients suddenly disappear? Can we still say with faith and confidence that God will provide? If the answer is no, then it only shows that our trust is not really in God but in creatures.
During the great economic depression in the 1930âs, with the collapse of the US stock market, thousands of people lost their jobs, their business and their savings. And with the rise in the number of the unemployed, poor and the bankrupt, also is the rise in the cases of suicide in the United States. From before the beginning of the great depression in 1928 up to its end in 1932, the number of suicide cases in USA increased by 22.8%.
Jeremiah 17:5-8 beautifully describes to us the difference between a man who trusts God and a man who trusts in mere men:
5 Thus says the Lord:
âCursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
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Asking For Our Daily Bread Reminds Us That God Is Good And Gracious
If we jump ahead in the Sermon on the Mount, past the Lords prayer, Jesus says, Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? . Christ tells us that we dont need to worry about food, clothes, or any material need. How can we be free from anxiety?
A few verses later, Jesus continues on to say, the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you . The reason Jesus says we do not have to be anxious is because God is our Father. He already knows what we need and what is good for us. If we seek the spiritualthe work of the Kingdom of Godour Father in heaven will provide for our physical needs. We can be certain of this because God is a good Father. Jesus says:
Ask, and it will be given to you seek, and you will find knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 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!
Carefully Consider What You Ask Of God Each Day When You Pray
When Jesuss disciples asked him to teach them how the pray, he gave them a prayer . Though many people recite this prayer exactly as the Bible records it , a better approach is to use this prayeroften called the Lords prayeras a model to inform our own communication with God.
One line is give us our daily bread. This is a curious phrase that many people stumble over. Two thousand years ago having enough to eateven having something to eatwas a daily concern for most people. Hunger was something they knew too well, so they would easily resonate with Jesuss prayer to ask God to provide them with food for the day.
Some people in our world today struggle with getting enough to eat. Theyll do well to ask God to give us our daily bread. Some euphemistically call this need for enough to eat as food insecurity. Sorry, its called hunger. It leads to starvation and death. Dont minimize the lack of this basic need of life by giving it a nice sounding label.
Yet much of the world gives little thought to where their next meal will come from. Most have plenty of food stockpiled in their homes, with nearby stores selling more.
For these peoplemyself includeddoes it make sense to ask God for something hes already provided? I think not. In fact, I suspect that thoughtlessly asking him for what hes already given stands as an insult to his generosity.
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Gods Daily Bread Is Needed In Reaching Our Potential
I have suggested that asking for and receiving daily bread at Gods hand plays a vital part in learning to trust God and in enduring lifes challenges. We also need a daily portion of divine bread to become what we must become. To repent, improve, and eventually reach the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ , as Paul expressed it, is a step-by-step process. Incorporating new and wholesome habits into our character or overcoming bad habits or addictions most often means an effort today followed by another tomorrow, and then another, perhaps for many days, even months and years, until victory is achieved. But we can do it because we can appeal to God for our daily bread, for the help we need each day.
This is the season of New Years resolutions, and I would like to quote to you the words of President N. Eldon Tanner, formerly a counselor in the First Presidency:
As we reflect on the value of resolving to do better, let us determine to discipline ourselves to carefully select the resolutions we make, to consider the purpose for making them, and finally, to make commitments for keeping them and not letting any obstacle stop us. Let us remind ourselves at the beginning of each day that we can keep a resolution just for that day. As we do this it gets easier and easier until it becomes a habit.2
President Ezra Taft Benson, speaking of repentance, gave this counsel:
Daily Choices Have Eternal Consequences
Thinking of our daily bread keeps us aware of the details of our lives, of the significance of the small things that occupy our days. Experience teaches that in a marriage, for example, a steady stream of simple kindnesses, help, and attention do much more to keep love alive and nurture the relationship than an occasional grand or expensive gesture. That is not to say, brethrenyou who are marriedthat your wife wouldnt appreciate something new and really nice to wear or occasionally some other gift that expresses, with an exclamation point, how you feel about her . Its just that a constant, daily expression of affection, in both words and actions, is far more meaningful in the long run.
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The Way God Measures Growth
The way God measures growth, as you might expect, is counter-intuitive. its upside down. Inside out. Its different than you might think or expect.
And I think its important to talk about because this may be the key that unlocks the doorway to spiritual growth for you.
When one of Jesus disciples came to him and asked him to teach them to pray, Jesus said, pray this way
Our Father in heaven,may your name be kept holy.your kingdom come,on earth as it is in heaven.
and then he prayed
Give us today our daily bread.
What in the world did Jesus have in mind when He taught His disciples to pray, Give us today our daily bread?
Isnt that interesting?
Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
Theres something childlike about the turn we take with the fourth petition of the Lords Prayer. In the first three petitions, we prayed to God for the sake of His name, His will, His kingdom.
Now we turn, like children, to ask Him for “our” bread. It is interesting to note that we ask Him for food as if it already belonged to us as if He had an obligation to provide it as if He were our Father.
Bread for Greatness
This is the filial boldness of God’s children. We ask, and we know we shall receive. For what father, “f his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?” .
We ask for our bread because we address our Father, and fathers produce families, not individuals.
It’s interesting, too, that we ask for “our” bread and not “my” bread. Jesus teaches us that, even when we pray in private, we do not pray alone . We pray in solidarity with all the children of God, the Church of the living and of the saints in heaven. And we pray for the whole Church, that all may have the bread they need today. This prayer is something intimate, yet something shared. It’s familial.
In the ancient world, the dispensation of daily bread was a sign of a kingdom’s prosperity. When the nation was doing well, winning its wars, and selling its goods, its citizens received an ample ration of bread, “without money and without price” . Even greater was Israel’s vision of the ongoing banquet that would come with the reign of the anointed Son of David, the Messiah .
That Says It All
Unsolved Mysteries
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How Do We Measure Spiritual Growth
Something I often pray for is for the growth of our church. But what does growth look like in a church? How do you measure the growth of a church?
We could count how much money is given. We could count how many people come to church. How many people are watching online. Thats one way of measuring growth. We can count nickels and noses but is that how you measure church growth?
Because Im a preacher people often ask me if our church is growing? Well, thats an interesting question. How would you answer that? How do you know if a church is growing?
Is a church really growing if more people are coming? If people are giving more this year than they did last year? Or could you have a church that is experiencing a different kind of growth?
The hard part is knowing how to measure the spiritual growth of a church because to know that you would have to know how to measure the spiritual growth of a person.
Which brings us to the question:
How do you measure the spiritual growth?
To answer that question, we may have to answer another question first.
Give Us This Our Daily Bread Svg
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Seek The Lords Help In Serving Others
Remember that we should not only be looking inward when we seek a daily measure of divine bread. If we are to become more like the Master, He who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister , we will seek His help in being of service to our fellowman day by day.
President Thomas S. Monson lives this principle better than anyone I know. There is ever present in his heart a prayer that God will reveal needs and means for him to assist those around him in any given day or moment of the day. One example from his time as a bishop illustrates the fact that sometimes even a little effort may, with the workings of the Spirit, yield remarkable fruit. I quote from Heidi Swintons biography of President Monson, To the Rescue:
One to whom reached out was Harold Gallacher. His wife and children were active in the Church, but not Harold. His daughter Sharon had asked Bishop Monson if he would do something to bring her father back into activity. As a bishop, he felt prompted one day to call on Harold. It was a hot summers day when he knocked on Harolds screen door. The bishop could see Harold sitting in his chair, smoking a cigarette and reading the newspaper. Who is it? Harold asked sullenly, without looking up.
Your bishop, Tom replied. Ive come to get acquainted and to urge your attendance with your family at our meetings.
Years later, a Brother Gallacher phoned the office of Elder Thomas S. Monson and asked to make an appointment to see him.
The Bread God Gives Us
The 4th petition in the Our Father Give us this day our daily bread- is so simple a child can understand it. And yet, the bread God gives us is so rich that it satisfies every human need, both temporal and spiritual.
The first three petitions express our eternal aspirations: Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done. We desire to participate already now in that heavenly union with the Blessed Trinity together with the Angels and saints on earth as it is in heaven!.
In the second half of the Our Father we voice our temporal petitions for those things that we pilgrims need in this life. Although the things necessary to human existence, or, at least, to its comfort, are almost innumerable notes the Catechism of Trent, still, they can be resumed in four simple petitions: daily bread, forgiveness, relief in temptation and deliverance from evil.
The singularity of the 4th petition consists in this: here alone do we express our positive needs of body and soul in this world. This is, indeed, a most extraordinary bread that can meet so many needs.
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