As I have said over the last few weeks, while most of us maintain a dedicated practice of prayer, integrating prayer into our daily lives. In our practice of prayer, we certainly experience moments of peace, but I think Jesus gives us a prayer that should bring about more than just peace. The Lord’s Prayer summarizes all of Jesus’ teachings and invites God to be part of our lives and our world in some powerful, revolutionary ways. Too often our approach to prayer is marked with a duty-bound sense of obligation and fluctuating consistency. Though I do not think that every prayer we pray will always be otherworldly, I do think our practice of prayer should be more expectant and experiential than we usually believe it to be. That is the point of the Lord’s Prayer.
This morning we continue our series, "The Rhythm of Prayer.” Our series explores what it means to develop a more effective discipline of prayer. Through the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus has gifted us with a practice of prayer that is important to our spiritual formation. In this prayer, Jesus teaches us the secret of his relationship with God the Father. Through the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to have an intentional and intimate relationship with God the Father as he did.
Through the rhythm of this essential prayer, we are renewed and reminded about God the Father’s character, kingdom, provision, forgiveness, guidance, and protection. Throughout this series, we will explore each line of the Lord’s Prayer to uncover what the Lord’s Prayer can teach us about the Spirit-filled life. The hope is that we can cultivate new insights to foster a greater sense of intentionality, intimacy, and illumination in our prayer experience.
The Lord’s Prayer is meant to be a relational encounter with the living and good God that encourages us and reprioritizes and reshapes our outlook, choices, actions, and faith. Throughout this series, I hope we find a rejuvenated prayer discipline “that sustains a sense of renewal in our spiritual journeys and challenges any duty-bound sense of prayer. We are diving into the transformative experience of prayer, focusing on the Lord’s Prayer to cultivate greater intentionality, intimacy, and illumination, seeking a rejuvenated prayer discipline that sustains spiritual renewal and challenges traditional, duty-bound approaches.” This morning we are going to look at how focusing on God’s Provision (past, present, and future) is an important aspect of the Lord’s Prayer.
Scripture Passage
This morning we will read Matthew 6:9-13. I invite you to follow along as I read from Matthew 6:9-13. I will be reading from the New International Version. As you follow along, I invite you to look at this passage with fresh eyes. Even though we have looked at this passage last week, still allow this story that may be familiar to you, to captivate you in new ways. Matthew 6:9-13 reads like this.
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”
Over the last few weeks, we have looked at Jesus’ teaching on the Lord’s Prayer in both Luke’s and Matthew’s accounts. We looked at the verses before these teachings on prayer, and we looked at some of the teachings of the early church on prayer. Additionally, we have looked at how Jesus was introducing something new, but also borrowing from some of the best prayers of their day and teaching his disciples to pray effective prayers.
In exploring the Lord's Prayer, it becomes evident that Jesus's teachings on prayer emphasize authenticity and intimacy with God over superficial displays of religious duty. Through examining both Luke's and Matthew's accounts, it's clear that Jesus sought to redefine prayer as a deeply intimate and sincere connection with God, for both individuals and communities, rather than a public spectacle or performance. Jesus warns against prayers done for the sake of being seen by others, highlighting the importance of genuine, heartfelt communication with God. He encourages his followers to retreat to private spaces for prayer, emphasizing the significance of sincerity and focus in fostering a meaningful relationship with God.
Moreover, Jesus introduces a revolutionary concept in prayer, inviting believers to first reflect on prayer on God the Father’s character. Secondly, Jesus invites God’s Kingdom to be part of their focus. In prayer, by focusing on God’s Kingdom, we align our desires with God's will and actively participate in the establishment of God's kingdom on earth. By praying for God's kingdom to come and God’s will to be done, followers of Jesus are called to be co-collaborators in bringing about God's justice, love, and redemption in their lives and in the world.
This morning we are just focusing on one line in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us today our daily bread.” It is this line about God’s Provision that appears after Jesus teaches us to start our prayers focused on God’s Character and God’s Kingdom. In this line about the provision of daily bread, Jesus teaches us to ask for and depend on God’s provision alone. In this line, we are reminded of how limited we are by ourselves. Jesus gives us a line in the prayer that reminds us that we are not doing things of our own might and power, but everything we need in this life, the very necessities of life, are supplied by God the Father.
The word for “Give us today our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer is chosen with great intentionality. The word for give, did-o-me, implies having someone with a means, reach out to you, to grant you a power that will give you an advantage in life. Jesus intentionally uses this word. God, who sits in heaven, whose character is holy, whose rule and reign is breaking into this world and bringing heaven to earth, also will give us an advantage in this life with the necessities and resources we need.
Main Focus
It is easy for us to look at this line in the Lord’s Prayer and see this as the give me, give me part. I don’t want us to make that assumption. The Lord’s Prayer is not a prayer that starts with a worshipful sense of God’s character, and then a realization of God’s mission in the world around us, only to ask for something. This line is more about dependence on God, and seeing God as a source, as it is a petition. Now, without a doubt, God cares for us. He longs for us to experience his goodness and good news in abundant ways, but effective prayers aren’t prayers that bring about physical gifts, favors, and blessings from God.
Jesus is bringing about some colorful imagery in this line in at least three ways, when he teaches them to pray asking God to supply their daily bread.
First, this line of the Lord’s Prayer would have driven first-century Jews back into the story of Moses, leading God’s people through the wilderness. It was in the wilderness, that God promised he would sustain them. In Exodus 16:4, God the Father promises Moses that he will "rain down bread from heaven for you.” They are told to go out of their tents and get what they need each day, for that day, and store nothing. Each day they are supposed to fully depend on God for their needs and sustenance. It is beautiful imagery of the way we should rise each day, looking to God for our needs and sustenance for that day.
The only day in which they were to gather more than a day’s worth was on the sixth day, so they could have their needs met as they rested for Sabbath. So, on the seventh day, they merely sat in their tents, resting in the provision that God had given them from heaven. In life, there are moments when God feels quiet, like on Sabbath, on those days we must hold on to the promises of God, and the abundant places he has supplied for us in the past. In this first imagery, we are reminded that God cares for our needs, abundantly. Even more, he supplies us in ways that will prepare us for the hard and dry seasons. Even in heaven, God knows our needs and cares about them, he longs to see us abundantly resourced and sustained, and so God brings the resources and blessings of heaven to make a difference in our lives here and now.
Secondly, Jesus is once again using imagery or lines from prayers of their day. It was just as common in Jesus’ day to not only pray to God in a reverent and worshipful way, but also from a place of great lament, need, and desperation. Many prayers of this day incorporated prayers to supply for one’s basic needs—of which ultimately supplies like bread and water are the ultimate examples. Like in the first imagery we reflect on, Jesus reminds us that God cares for our needs, abundantly. And, for centuries people knew this about God. However, in Jesus’ teaching to pray in this way, Jesus’ disciples and Matthew’s first readers might have been reminded of scriptures like Proverbs 30:8 which reads, “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread” This Proverb speaks to a sense of contentment that is found when we trust God alone as our supplier. I think this Proverb also beautifully speaks to the way we are to prayerfully ask God for our needs. This line Jesus gives us in the Lord’s Prayer, like with the Proverb, not only reminds us that the greatest contentment we will experience in life is in dependence on God, but it also reminds us that God cares about our needs to the point where God desires we invite the rule and reign of God, God’s presence, into our areas of need. This line of the Lord’s Prayer tells us that God cares for our bodies. Jesus showed us that in his life and ministry as he spent so much time healing people’s diseases and satisfying physical hunger. However, here he reminds us that prayer
Third, in this day people did not have refrigeration, nor the amount of food preservation and food storage we do today. You had to go to the market most days to get what you needed. It was a continual act. There is beautiful imagery here in which we are reminded to keep going to God. Elsewhere Jesus teaches us about prayer and seeking God’s resourcing in this way, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." I am told a better translation of this passage in Matthew 7:7-12, is a reminder to keep asking, seeking, and knocking. That fits the narrative of this prayer. A prayer the early church noted practicing three times a day. Three meals. Three asks. Three times in we are reminded and realigned to ask God to supply for our needs. We are constantly going to the source of our supplies, to the marketplace, heaven, and asking God’s hand, favor, and presence to be with us.
The Theologian William Barclay also points out that it is interesting how the Lord’s Prayer, which calls for God to supply our daily needs, eerily echoes Jesus’ practice of the Lord’s Table, which we celebrated earlier today. At the Lord’s Table, we remember that the bread God supplied was Jesus, and it was broken for our body and that we are to follow in his footsteps. In the Lord's Prayer, we remember what bread God sends us. Bread also carries with it the imagery of Spiritual Food for Jewish folks, and Jesus told us early on in his life and ministry, that we don’t live on bread alone, but on the words that come from the mouth of God. In the Lord’s Prayer, we remember that the words, ways, and works of Jesus, the bread that God sent us, are enough to live on. Bread also carries with it the imagery of God’s Kingdom for Jewish people. In Luke, some bystanders said to Jesus, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.” There is a long-held idea that God joins his people at the feast, and the messianic expectations were that God would bring about celebration and feasting. Ultimately, the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that through Jesus, God breaks into our world to sit at the table with us, to be present with and through us in all things.
This line in the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that when we slow down and look at it, God’s sustaining and providing nature is evident in every aspect of our lives, from the breath we take to the food we eat and the relationships we cherish. Scripture abounds with reminders of God's faithfulness in meeting our needs, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. The intricate workings of nature, the daily provision of food, and the support of loving relationships all testify to God's ongoing care and provision. Even in moments of trial or uncertainty, we find solace in the knowledge that God sustains us, guiding us through life's challenges and offering comfort in times of need. Ultimately, God's provision extends beyond the material realm, encompassing the peace, joy, and spiritual nourishment that sustain us on our journey. We are also reminded that God’s rule and reign has and continues to come into our reality in both natural and supernatural ways, ordinary and miraculous ways to supply our needs. All we have to do is call on God and keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. In recognizing God's sustaining presence, we are invited into a deeper trust and reliance on God the Father's unfailing love, knowing that God the Father is the source of all good things and will continue to provide for us according to God’s perfect wisdom and grace.
The Complete Jewish Bible Translation more accurately translates this request, “Give us the food we need today.” That translation captures the imagery and intent of Moses and the Proverb that I share well. God, just give me today, what I need to today, to live but to be dependent on you. That’s a prayer. Jesus gives us a prayer that each day reminds us that we must turn our total dependence back on God the Father.
Application
- Our prayers experience greater effectiveness when we trust each day to God’s Provision.
- We should intentionally invite God’s Provision into each area and arena of our life.
- The more we reflect on God’s past, present, and future provision in our prayers, the more intimately we will trust God at work in our lives.
- We pray for God’s Provision because it is meant to be experienced in our hearts and lives in a way that we remember we can’t do it on our own.
- The more we focus on God’s Provision (not our wants) in our prayers, the more God’s presence will renovate our hearts and world, renovating our outlook, choices, and actions.
There are many places of discontent in my life. Too often I work creatively and harder to make things happen on my own power. Eventually, even that is not enough. Author Michael Breen remarks, “As humans, we are needy beings.” In this prayer, we are trusting God with our most basic of needs, food, shelter, and clothing, and we realize those needs are needs that need to be met daily. However, we also need spiritual bread, because we have spiritual needs. There is a need for love, peace, faith, purpose, and eternal life. All of our needs are wrapped up in asking God for our daily bread. We are also reminded to be dependent on God the Father alone for them. In this prayer, we are reminded that God the Father has sent Jesus alone to meet our spiritual needs.
In response to this challenge of ongoing prayer, this week, I hope you will utilize the rhythm of the Lord’s Prayer, and incorporate deeper reflection on God’s provision in your life and the place in which you long for him to still provide. In prayer, we remember that God is near to us, and cares. That means that for those who pray in a serene, serious, and sincere way, God’s provision will come in God’s timing. There is no place in which we cannot ask him to have his way.
Thank you for continuing to journey with me through this series. May God’s rule and reign become more central to your times of prayer. That is my hope for my prayer time as well. Next week, we will examine how God’s forgiveness is an important aspect of prayer.