Thursday, December 31

Begin by reading the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)
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.
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, Amen.
(this last phrase is actually not in the oldest manuscripts of the Bible, but was added from later tradition)

Give us today our daily bread…
At first reading this probably sounds like the most straightforward and easy to understand line in the whole prayer. But let’s consider a few things about this specific prayer…

We are told to pray, Give us today…All that we have is a gift given by God! This is not an excuse to do nothing but wait for God to give us what we want. It is meant to remind us that apart from God, we would have nothing at all.

We are to pray give us today our daily bread, not give me today my daily bread.
This is not a selfish, me-centered request, we must not pray about our needs without caring at all about the needs of others.

We are to pray for our daily bread. We should not look fearfully too far into the future and worry over what will happen – read Matthew 6:25-34. The God who created the day is our Father and He will provide what we need in the day He created.

We are told to pray for our daily bread… Was Jesus referring to physical bread (food) or spiritual food, or both? Jesus did after all call Himself the “Bread of Life” (John 6:35). Perhaps then it is a prayer for Jesus himself!
Clearly Jesus is urging us to pray about more than just our daily meals here, but that does not mean we are not to pray about our basic needs and concerns at all.

What troubles you today? What do you worry about? What do you have trouble trusting God with or trusting Him for?

Remember…He is your Father! His name is Holy! He is your King! He loves with an everlasting love!!

Pastor Jeff Frazier