Daily Bread

The next line of the Lord's Prayer is this: Give us this day, our daily bread.

As many of us know (and for those of you that don't) this is a call back to the time when Israel wondered the desert for 40 years.  Each day, God would provide them with mana - which could be made into bread: hence DAILY bread.

In the Lord's Prayer, we say this.

But what do we mean?

Remember, Jesus also once said that man doesn't live by bread alone.  So, are we praying for our daily bread?  True bread?  Or spiritual bread?  Or what kind of bread?

I've heard it preached both ways...and that's exactly what I think it's supposed to be: both.

We are not only praying for our spiritual daily bread...that which we spiritually will live on, but also that we trust God will provide for us.

Exactly how?  That's up to God - that's what we are to trust him with.

But instead of asking God how, we should be asking ourselves if we ARE trusting God to give us our daily bread -whichever we may need daily.

Just today I put some money into my savings account - you know, for the future.  Of course, this means that in the future, should I need it, I am trusting that my BANK will provide me with this money.  But in reality: what might I need this money for?

Certainly I'm not putting it in the bank, under a savings account in MY name, for the poor.  That wasn't the reason for the account.  No, it was for ME.

I put away that money for when I need it.  But what might I need it for?  Car tires?  House payment? In other words: things of this world?

Will I use ANY of this money for someone who is in true need?

I don't know.  I would like to say, YES!  But at the moment, I really don't know.

But I know what I SHOULD do.

So am I really trusting God to give me my daily bread?  In any form?

If I am honest with myself, I have to say no.

No.  I make plans, just in case.  Even spiritually.  If God doesn't come through (as I believe he should) then I have my back up plans - just in case.

Money wise - I truly don't believe God will come through with what I need - after all, I NEED my movies and my car, and my house, and my....and the list goes on.  But do I really need them?

Does anyone?

What are we really praying for here?  Needs or wants?

Do we trust God to provide - however he deems fit, and with what he deems needed?

I don't know that I honestly say that I am.

But I do know that I want to.

And that takes quite a leap of faith - to trust God at his word.

So maybe I will try and change this part of the prayer.  Instead of praying for my daily bread, I will pray for accepting my daily bread.  Because, when it comes down to it -that exactly what I DON'T do - accept my daily bread.

I always want more...for just in case....

The Lord's Prayer - Part One (B)

In reading back, I noticed I failed to point out another, very key, piece to our prayer as well.

The FIRST WORDS!

Duh!

"Our Father..."

Very key words.

They are not, "Our God" or "Our master" or "Our Leader" or "Our Judge" or "Our Supervisor" or "Our Spiritual Police Officer" or "Our ANYTHING."

"Our Father."

Just those words denote something special, something different.  A Father.  A GOD as a FATHER.  This could be a whole different post (and maybe should be) as to what this truly means for us as believers.

A GOD as a FATHER.

No, A GOD as OUR FATHER.

I think this needs to be look at in more depth...

The Lord's Prayer - Part One

In our look at prayer, we are going to take a look at The Lord's Prayer.

However, we will go through this slow and easy.

Remember, we are trying to answer: what exactly IS prayer? What's it for?  What's it look like?

To find out we are looking at the prayer that Jesus gave us as a model: The Lord's Prayer.

It starts: Our Father, who art in heaven...hallowed be thy name...thy kingdom come, thy will be done...on earth as it is in heaven.

For the moment we will start there.

What have we said so far?

For one, we addressed who we are praying to: God.

But then we say, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done."

No doubt, at least in this case, we are admitting that God's kingdom IS coming, and his ultimate will, WILL BE done.

That's a pretty heavy admission!  Humbling too!

Not OUR will, not OUR kingdom - but God's...and it's coming!

Where?

On Earth - as it IS in Heaven.

I have always glossed over this part in the prayer, just rambled it off in order to get through the prayer.  However, now, I realize how heavy of a statement this is, and right at the BEGINNING!

We haven't prayed for anything yet - all we have done is ACKNOWLEDGE what is going to happen...someday.

So the question is: what does this mean in regards to OUR prayers?

I would take it to mean that somewhere (perhaps the beginning) we are to acknowledge that God's will, no matter what, when all is said and done WILL BE done.

And we should take A LOT of comfort in that.

A LOT.

The first part of our prayer is GREAT NEWS!

God will be done!