3. The provision through Prayer
Readings: Matt 6:9-13, Luke 11:1-13.
Introduction: It would be good for us all to read these two accounts of our Lord teaching on Prayer. Did you know that between the two Scripture passages are two years in the ministry of our Lord. The disciples had observed how His prayer life produced power in His ministry. They had seen the priority of prayer in our Lord’s life and the difference it made to his ministry. He came out from such times of prayer and performed the Miraculous.
The disciples didn’t learn the lesson the first time they asked to be taught how to pray and two years later they were still asking, “Teach us to pray”. Most of us struggle with prayer and most of us don’t see many supernatural miracles. The questions that must be asked is, Firstly is there a link between prayerlessness and Powerlessness?
And Secondly, “Are we willing to be taught to pray?”
I believe that revival begins in the hearts of men and women when we say, “I want to learn to pray more than anything else.”
This so called “Lord’s Prayer”, is a pattern prayer for daily use; seven parts of the prayer, each part designed to meet a need in our spirits. However, we ought not to move from one part of the prayer to another, until we are confident that that need has been met in our lives.
We have learned the first two petitions which relate to God. Jesus teaches us that prayer, first of all, is about God, about honouring His Name, His Kingdom, and His will. That is the essence of Christian prayer. We pray, not merely for our needs but for glorifying God, letting Him control our lives and accepting His will. Sadly, today many Christians focus their prayers on the fulfilment of their physical and emotional needs. They even believe that we have a right to demand things from God because we are His children.
John Piper said: “That isn’t the point of prayer, at all. We are to give God the privilege and opportunity of revealing His glory through the meeting of the deepest of human needs. But it is because we want God to be on display, not because we make demands on Him for our benefit. If prayer becomes man-centered, if prayer becomes self-centered, if prayer becomes selfish in any sense, it ceases to be the kind of prayer our Lord said should be characteristic of His kingdom. And yet so many people approach God that way.”
The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to put God first. When we do that, Jesus promises this “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt 6:33).
So we move to ask for our daily bread that needs might be met but God Glorified and his Kingdom come! Jesus teaches us to pray that God would give us daily bread (Matthew 6:11).
1. The Prayer indicates our Deepest needs.
We sing “Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah” – At funerals non-church families often just ask for “The Bread of Heaven song”!
Obviously Jesus was not telling His disciples to pray only for bread. But bread was a staple in the diet of the Jews, and had been so for many years. Bread was a powerful symbol of God’s provision for His people in the Old Testament. We remember how God cared for the Israelites when they were in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt. Life in the wilderness was hard, and soon the people began to complain that it would be better to be back in Egypt, where they had wonderful food to eat. In response to these complaints, God promised to “rain bread from heaven” (Ex. 16:4). The next morning, when the dew lifted, there remained behind on the ground “a small round substance, as fine as frost… . It was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey” (vv. 14, 31). When God miraculously fed His people from heaven, he did so by giving them bread.
It’s interesting to me that in the language of Western culture, we sometimes speak of “the breadwinner.” (man or woman!!) Even in our slang, we use the word bread as a synonym for “money.” Bread remains, at least in our language, as a powerful symbol of the rudimentary basis of provision for our needs.
After the Korean War ended, South Korea was left with a large number of children who had been orphaned by the war. Relief agencies came in to deal with all the problems that arose in connection with having so many orphan children .Even though the children had three meals a day provided for them, they were restless and anxious at night and had difficulty sleeping. As they talked to the children, they soon discovered that the children had great anxiety about whether they would have food the next day. To help resolve this problem, the relief workers in one particular orphanage decided that each night when the children were put to bed, the nurses there would place a single piece of bread in each child’s hand. The bread wasn’t intended to be eaten; it was simply intended to be held by the children as they went to sleep. It was a “security blanket” for them, reminding them that there would be provision for their daily needs. Sure enough, the bread calmed the children’s anxieties and helped them sleep. Likewise, we take comfort in knowing that our physical needs are met, that we have food, or “bread,” for our needs.
2. This prayer indicates our dependency on God
This petition of the Lord’s Prayer, then, teaches us to come to God in a spirit of humble dependence, asking Him to provide what we need and to sustain us from day to day. We are not given license to ask for great riches, but we are encouraged to make our needs known to Him, trusting that He will provide.
- So Pray specifically
If we find that God’s hand seems to be invisible to us and that we cannot discern His providential intrusion into our lives, that may be due partly to the way we pray. We have a tendency to pray in general. When we pray in general, the only way we will see the hand of God’s providence is in general. As we enter into prayer, this conversation and communion with God, and put our petitions before Him, pouring out our souls and our needs specifically, we see specific answers to our prayers. Our Father has invited us to go to Him and ask Him for our daily bread. He will not fail to provide it.
- So pray for your physical, emotional and spiritual needs
“Give us today our daily bread.” That means “Bread, sufficient for our substance and support, i.e., That quantity of food which is necessary to support our health and strength, by being changed into the substance of our bodies and our spirits” So “Give us this day our daily bread” is talking about all of our needs. Our heavenly Father is a very caring God. He knows and cares about our physical needs.
It thrills me to know that God, the God of eternity, God who is the infinitely holy God of the universe who holds all the whirling worlds, and the spinning stars in the palm of His hand. That same God cares that my physical needs are met. That same God is concerned with the fact that I have a meal to eat, clothes to wear, and a place to rest. It thrills me that that God, that infinite, eternal God, has come to earth in terms of His caring love, and is concerned that the needs of my life in a physical way, and your life, be met. And He even sets certain conditions for them being met.
3. This Prayer indicates our Responsibility to others
- We are responsible for each others. Say it now … “Give US this day OUR daily bread” Which implies that we are responsible to care for one another!
We live in an age where we see the curse of irresponsibility! Remember after Cain slew his brother Able God came asking him “Where is he?” Cain’s response was typical of every age “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In other words what’s he got to do with me!
The poor, the hungry, the frightened, the homeless, the refugees are our responsibility!
Thank God for Foodbanks and for Marcus Rashford’s concern for the poorest in our communities. It is an indictment against us that in our own community there are people who go to bed hungry!
- We are accountable to God
Let Jesus have the Last word in Matt 25
1 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ‘Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” ‘Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison and go to visit you?” ‘The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” ‘Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was ill and in prison and you did not look after me.” ‘They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or ill or in prison, and did not help you?” ‘He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” ‘Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.’
Let me make it plain we are saved by Grace through Faith but having been saved God expects us to live differently and accept responsibility for each other.
I remember when a West Indian Pastor came to our Church in Cardiff and told to me that when he had preached on this passage back in the West Indies he casually said to his congregation , “If you have two of something and you don’t need two you should give one to someone that needs it.” When later standing at the door to greet the congregation a poor member of the church said, “Pastor what about those who have two chickens?” To which he replies, ” That’s not fair, you know I have two chickens!!” I asked him how he responded? He said, ” I went home and delivered one to her!”
CONCLUSION: When we pray, ” Give us this day our daily bread.” It speaks to our deepest need, of our dependency on God and of our responsibility to others. What is the Spirit saying to the Church today? Let us affirm with Paul “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.(Philippians 4:19-20) And “The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not be in need” (Psalm 23:1)
Questions
1. What do you understand when you pray “Give us this day our daily bread?”
2. What do we learn of prayer from the example of Jesus?
3. What have you gained from this study that has been most encouraging and challenging?
4. How can our prayers affect what happens in our family, our church, our community, our nation and even the world?