3rd Lesson On How To Pray! (Hix)

Matthew 6:9-13-In this manner, therefore, 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 this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

A little boy got down on his knees beside the bed and began to pray:

"Dear God: Aunt Stella isn't married yet. Uncle Hubert hasn't got a job.

Daddy's hair is falling out. I'm tired of praying for this family without

getting any results."

The next four parts of this prayer, have to do with our needs.

1-Give us this day our daily bread

2-And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors

3-And do not lead us into temptation

4-But deliver us from the evil one

Give Us This Day-We are to live on a daily dependence upon the Lord, we are to depend upon him to meet our daily needs.

It is not our job, our talents, our gifts, our portfolio, not even our family that meets our needs, God may use one or all of those things to meet your needs, but never forget it is from His hand that he feeds us and takes care of us!

The Rev. J. H. Wilson of Edinburgh relates: "One day I asked the children in our infant school, ' Who gives you the bread you get to your dinner?' Almost every voice answered, My mother.' 'But who gave it to your mother?' 'The baker.' 'And who gave it to the baker?' 'The miller.' 'And who gave it to the miller?' 'The farmer.' And who gave it to the farmer?' 'The ground.' And only when I asked, 'Who gave it to the ground?' did I get the answer, 'It was God.'" How many children of a larger growth, like these infants, attribute their blessings to any second cause rather than to the gift of their Father!

Our-Not someone’s else bread, in other word’s don’t take it out of someone else’s mouth!

Our Daily Bread-The things we need to sustain us, not just food, but anything we need to survive in this old cruel world we live in.

Daily-Prayer must be a "daily" exercise of the Christian life.

Not looking for tomorrow or worrying about tomorrow, but just focusing on today and today’s needs!

Just like the Israelites had to do in the wilderness, when God was feeding them manna.

This part of the prayer is reminding us, that God is concerned about our everyday needs, that those needs and the meeting of those needs are all part of God’s plan!

We should not be hinder about make those request or those needs known to our heavenly Father!

God knows those needs already, but us making that request for Him to supply that need, is admitting that we can’t do it on our own, and that we are depend upon Him!

Remember, these prayer is for our needs, not our greed’s!

God is as concerned with our physical bodies, as well with our spiritual bodies.

God understands that sometimes our physical needs that must be met, before our emotional and spiritual needs can be met.

We are not to pray and wait...we are to pray and work.

Praying "give us this day our daily bread" does not absolve us from the

responsibility of working to put that bread on the table.

The farmer plants the seed of wheat, and, of course, it is God who makes the seed grow.

But still there are weeds to be pulled, water to be applied, plants to be fertilized, the harvest to be gathered in, flour to be ground, dough to be kneaded, bread to be baked.

Once there was a farmer who took over a farm that had long been in a state of

neglect. He worked very hard to reclaim the land: cutting back the underbrush, clearing away the stones, pulling the weeds, fertilizing the soil, planting and tilling the crops, until he had a rich harvest of corn, wheat, and soybeans.

One evening he was showing it all to a friend, who commented, “God and you have a beautiful piece of ground."

"Yes," said the farmer who had worked so hard, "but you should have seen it

when God had it all to himself."

Wonderful Saying:

Pray as though it all depends on God;

Work as though it all depends on you