The Lord's Prayer - Part 3

Give Us Our Daily Bread

We have been journeying through the prayer that Jesus modeled when his disciples asked him how they should pray. As we’ve seen, he begins by reminded us who we are praying to: God is our Heavenly Father who loves us, but He also transcends our momentary circumstances, standing above them. And because He is God and we are not, it is His Kingdom purposes that we are looking to advance, His will that we pray will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

However, our own needs matter to our Heavenly Father, and as we come to the central verse of the Lord’s Prayer, and it could not be more personal:

“Give us today our daily bread” - Matthew 6:11

Intellectually, I’ve always known that this is a declaration of dependence upon our Heavenly Father.  But as someone who has grown up in an affluent family in America, praying for bread has never felt all that pertinent. I’ve often viewed "bread" as a metaphor for money rather than food. After all, whatever I’ve needed has been available, either in my fridge, my pantry or just down the street at any of a dozen stores. All I’ve needed was the money to buy what I wanted. It wasn’t until I saw lines wrapped around my local grocery store that the thought crossed my mind: will I be able to feed my family?

For many of us, this current crisis is the first time we’re experiencing a true sense of scarcity.  It may be the first time in our life when we truly feel dependent on God for what we’re going to eat. But for the Jewish community, dependence upon God was a central part of their national identity. After all, for forty years, God had placed them in a state of daily dependence on Him for their sustenance.

After God led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea, they found themselves in the wilderness, with Egypt behind them and the Promised Land somewhere ahead. But all they could see in that place was their hunger, and they began to grumble against God, and romanticize what life in slavery had been like.

But God had a plan.

“The LORD said to Moses, ‘I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them at twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” (Exodus 16:11-12)

And that’s just what happened. That evening, a flock of quail settled in the camp and provided meat, and in the morning a strange bread-like substance appeared on the ground. The people had no idea what it was, so they called it mana, which means “What is it?”

But God unexpectedly commanded the Israelites not to collect more than they needed for that particular day. No more quail than they and their family could eat for dinner, and no more mana than they needed to last them that day. In other words, no hoarding.  Why? Because God wasn’t just providing for their physical needs. He was teaching them to trust Him.

Each day, He wanted them to go to bed with full bellies but nothing left in their tent, so that in the morning, they would wake up with the knowledge that their survival was dependent upon His provision.

Of course, many of the Israelites struggled with this directive. They hoarded meat and mana, stashing it away in the back of their tent in case their heavenly Father didn’t come through the next day. But God wasn’t thwarted by their disobedience; any excess that they kept overnight was spoiled in the morning, because He alone was to be their provider.

The current toilet paper shortages are a reminder that we still haven’t learned to trust God. We may pay lip service to Him, but deep down we all feel a lot better when we have a nice big cushion of food and TP in our pantry just in case He doesn’t come through. But at what cost? Perhaps our heavenly Father is inviting us to literally trust Him for our daily bread. What if this season is about more than merely surviving – what if He wants to use this time of scarcity to show us that He truly is our provider.

Admittedly, both my wife and I have been concerned about the shortages we’ve experienced. Both of us have stood in those lines outside of our super market. But through this whole crisis, do you know who hasn’t worried about what they will eat? My kids. Because they know their parents will take care of them.

In the same way, Jesus’ prayer reminds us that our Father in Heaven is our provider, so we don’t need to worry. He’s got us, and He knows what we need even when we don’t. And that’s why just a few verses later in the very same sermon where Jesus teaches us how to pray, he reiterates our need to trust God:

“So I tell you again, don’t worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the unbelieving world runs after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Instead of worrying, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 631-34)

Father, you know what we need before we ask. Yes, we need food, we need money, we need TP. But even more than those things, we need you. We pray that you will use this time to teach us to remain dependent upon you. And as you did for the Israelites in the wilderness, we pray that you will use this time of scarcity to grow our faith – to increase our trust in you. So Father, we ask that you would give us the bread we need for today and no more. Because you are our Provider and you are enough. Amen.

Lord's Prayer - Part 1

Our Father in Heaven...

Given all that is going on in our world right now, it has never been more important to be a people who pray. So over the next five days, I am going to be writing a devotional working through the Lord’s Prayer. After all, if we’re going to learn how to pray, there’s no one better to teach us than Jesus.

You’re probably familiar with the words of the Lord’s Prayer, but it never hurts to be reminded, so here is what Jesus taught his disciples:

"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."

                             - Matthew 6:9-13

Each day we will unpack a verse of Jesus' prayer, so let's begin with the first part:

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name."

Far too often, we approach prayer like a shopping list. "God, I want good health, the stock market to rebound, and some toilet paper. Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, can you get my boys to be nice to one another?" The problem with this approach is it treats God like an Amazon fulfillment center. We give Him our wish list, pay for it with good behavior, and then we expect Him to deliver it in 2-days or less.

But I've got news for you: God is not Amazon. He's not some cosmic vending machine that we an control. He's the creator and sustainer of the universe. He made us in His image to carry out His will, not the other way around, so we need to keep who we're talking to in perspective. 

That is why when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he began by rooting his prayer in who God is:

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name."

There are two crucial parts of God's character that Jesus identifies: He is our Father and He is Holy. Let's take the second part first.

Hallowed (or holy) simply means "set apart" or "other." And it reminds us that our God stands above all the chaos we're experiencing. He's not swept up in it or overwhelmed by it. What's more, God isn't shackled by the same limitations we are. He may have created time, but His perspective isn't limited by it. He knows the end from the beginning. He's not surprised by what we're going through, and He knows how He will use it to bring about His purposes and plans.

So God is not some cosmic vending machine that we can use to get our way. He is our sovereign God and He is worthy of our reverential respect. But this fact is balanced by the other aspect of God's character that Jesus highlights: He is our Heavenly Father.

While He may stand above the chaos of our current reality, He also chooses to enter into it, to remain intimately connected with us. And as our Father, He cares deeply about us. And that's why we can come to Him with our cares, our concerns, and our cries for help.

The beauty of Jesus' opening is that it grounds our prayers in the truth of who we are talking to: He is our loving Father who wants to talk with us, but He's also our transcendent God whose ways are higher than our own and who sees what we're going through in the context of the whole scope of history. So His response to our prayers will never be short-sighted or insufficient.

God, we thank you that you are God and that you are in control. But we are so grateful that you are also our Heavenly Father who hears our cries and cares about us, your children.