Cornerstone Church March 26, 2006
“Prayer 101 - Lord Teach Us To Pray” Series
LESSON 4: DAILY ASKING FOR GOD’S PROVISION
Matthew 6:11
"Most American Christians don’t need God."
Gertrude, a missionary on an island in Haiti, startled me with this answer to my question about how American Christians differed from Haitian Christians.
"American Christians have everything they need," Gertrude continued. "If they don’t pray or read the Bible for weeks, it makes little difference in their daily lives. They still have food to eat, a place to sleep, regular income. They don’t need to practice their faith every day."
For many Christians in the United States, that’s true, I thought. Gertrude lives among impoverished people. That seems to give her a deeper understanding of how God provides. She impressed me with her firm trust in God to supply what she and the islanders need for daily living. Maybe there were some lessons here that those of us in a more comfortable culture needed to learn.
My discussion with Gertrude, as well as other experiences, made me take a new look at a familiar phrase in the Lord’s Prayer: "Give us today our daily bread." In our society, even a young child’s allowance can buy a loaf of bread. What does this request mean for those of us who don’t worry much about putting food on the table? What truths are we missing as we slide over these words?
Give Us Today Our Daily Bread: Why do believers in a land of plenty need to ask for daily bread?
by Stephen W. Sorenson Discipleship Journal Issue #62 March/April 1991
This morning we are going to begin to look at the middle section of the Lord’s Prayer. It is the part of Jesus’ model prayer where He teaches us:
How we are to petition His Father with our needs!
This middle section of the model prayer is like a valley between two mountains. Each part of the prayer, however, focuses our attention on our Great and Awesome God!
Jesus taught His disciples, and teaches us, that we need to praise God when we come to Him in prayer! The first verses we looked at talk about:
God’s Name
God’s Kingdom
God’s Will
Because God is sovereign over His entire creation, His Eternal Decree and purpose will be accomplished!
What is the Eternal Decree of God? Let me quote the answer to Question Seven of the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
“...His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby, for His own Glory, He foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.”
This answer is based on what the Word of God teaches in Ephesians 1:11
Eph. 1:11-12 NIV In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
The first section of the prayer not only teaches us the importance of praise but it also teaches us the importance of GOD’S WILL and GOD’S KINGDOM!
We learned a few weeks ago that:
Prayer helps us align our will, our goals and our purpose with God’s will, God’s goals, and God’s purpose! What really matters in life is that His will be done and that His kingdom comes!
Matthew 6:33-34 NIV But 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 worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
He is LORD and we are His subjects!
He is the Creator Who is Holy, Righteous and Just and we are the creature!
The middle section of Jesus’ model prayer reveals key areas that the LORD Jesus Christ meets human needs!
He Gives Us
He Forgives Us
He Protects Us
Then the prayer returns to praise for - God’s Kingdom, God’s Power and God’s Glory!
What a magnificent and awesome heavenly Father and Creator we have! Each of the key areas that He instructs us to petition Him for, are related to the vital areas of life!
Our Daily Bread
(Present Need) Physical Needs
Body
Forgive Us Our Debts
(Past Need) Mental Needs
Soul
Deliver Us From Evil
(Future Need) Spiritual Needs
Spirit
“Give us today our daily bread.”
Matt. 6:11 NIV
THIS IS AN INTERESTING PRAYER FOR CHRISTIANS LIVING IN AMERICA ISN’T IT?
How many of you know what you are going to have for dinner this afternoon?
How many of you have a well stocked supply of food?
The truth is we aren’t thinking most of the time about our need for daily bread. Most of us decide what we are going to eat today from an extensive list of choices.
Should I eat chicken or beef?
Am I in the mood for tacos, a salad, pizza, fish or soup?
If I inventoried what is canned on our shelves, what is in our pantry, what is in our refrigerator and freezer, I’m sure that we have several days ahead if not two weeks of food ahead! I’m sure that the same would be true at your house!
At the time this was written the people lived in an agrarian society. The people had to cultivate the ground, plant the seed, wait for the harvest, mill the grain, and then bake their bread.
For those living in that era, and for many today throughout
the world, this is still an urgent prayer request!
THIS IS HARD FOR US TO COMPREHEND!
Our houses in recent years have undergone a transformation and today the kitchen is now one of the largest rooms in our homes!
If you are ever having trouble starting a conversation with someone just start taking about food! Ask them:
What is their favorite food?
Where they like to eat?
What is the strangest custom they had in their home related to food?
When we need bread we can stop by Winco, Bel Aire or The Great Harvest Bread Company to pick up some bread!
Our problem or difficulty in getting bread is in making a decision on what kind of bread to take home. A plethora of choices exist!
Day old bread Multigrain Bread
White Bread Classic 9 Grain Bread
Whole Wheat Apple Crunch
Honey Whole Wheat Cinna-Raison Walnut
Today we say, “Bread” that’s Carbs!
I probably shouldn’t admit this to you younger readers, but when my generation was your age, we did some pretty stupid things. I’m talking about taking CRAZY risks.
We drank water right from the tap.
We used aspirin bottles that you could actually open with your bare hands.
We bought appliances that were not festooned with helpful safety warnings such as, "DO NOT BATHE WITH THIS TOASTER."
But for sheer insanity, the wildest thing we did was - prepare to be shocked - we deliberately ingested carbohydrates!
I know, I know. It was wrong...but we were young and foolish, and there was a lot of peer pressure. You’d be at a party, and there would be a lava lamp blooping away, and a Jimi Hendrix record playing. And then, when the mood was right, somebody would say: "You wanna do some ’drates?" And the next thing you know, there’d be a bowl of pretzels going around, or crackers, or even potato chips, and we’d put these things into our mouths and just EAT them. My only excuse was that we were ignorant.
…Back then, we had no idea. Nobody did!
Our own MOTHERS gave us bread!
Today, of course, nobody eats bread. People are terrified of all carbohydrates, as evidenced by the recent mass robbery at a midtown Manhattan restaurant, where 87 patrons turned their wallets over to a man armed only with a strand of No. 8 spaghetti. ("Do what he says! He has pasta!")
The city of Beverly Hills has been evacuated twice this month because of reports - false, thank heavens--that terrorists had put a bagel in the water supply.
MY NAME IS DAVE, AND I’M A CARBOHYDRATIC ...by Dave Barry
A more appropriate prayer might be – LORD Help me to not eat so much!
I am also convinced that Asking God to supply our Daily Bread, is still a valid and needful prayer for each of us to pray daily!
Beyond this request for a daily portion of bread is something tangible for us to learn.
WHAT IS DAILY BREAD?
Daily Bread = “anything that is necessary to sustain life!”
“Bread” was a symbol for everything necessary for the preservation of this life, like food, a healthy body, good weather, house, home, wife, children, good government and peace.”
Martin Luther
Needs like:
Shelter – a roof over your head
Warmth – clothing, jackets, blankets, socks and shoes
Food – our daily nutritional needs
I think that there is even more implied that we can ask Him for beyond these essential needs! I believe that this text reveals that we can ask our heavenly Father daily to supply:
Physical Strength
Emotional Strength
Spiritual Strength
Physical strength for the tasks you are faced with daily!
I know that some of you are facing health problems and just getting through a day is a miracle!
Emotional strength for what you face each day!
Some of you are frightened, lonely, recently lost a loved one, or discouraged and getting through a day can be challenging!
Spiritual strength for what you are facing each day!
You are committed to becoming more like the LORD Jesus Christ and you need spiritual strength and God’s grace to overcome a habitual sin, attitude or addiction as you are working on your spiritual walk with the LORD.
OTHER EXAMPLES OF DAILY BREAD
It means that if you are out of work, walking obediently with the LORD, actively seeking work, then you can believe, with all of your heart that the LORD Jesus Christ will provide for your need of a job.
Personal Example: I watched the LORD Jesus Christ take care of our family of seven when I was off of work for a year at one time! He is able!
If you are on a fixed income, or you have a young family, or both, and you have spent your money wisely and you still have a financial need to pay for a doctor’s bill, or for some medicine, the LORD Jesus Christ will provide for you!
Maybe your month is longer than your income, you are not in debt, and you still have a need for food, rent, food for your baby, or to pay some utility, the LORD is able to provide!
Conceivably you are a young mother with one or more preschool children at home and you do not know how you are going to make it through the day – Ask the Father for your Daily Bread!
Possibly you have a yearning for your family to go to Family Camp this summer at Mt. Hermon but you do not have the money to go – Ask the Father for your Daily Bread.
How about praying and asking the LORD Jesus Christ to refresh and replenish your daily need for:
A more loving attitude or spirit?
A more believing and trusting faith?
A more forgiving attitude?
A more patient disposition?
A more victorious walk with Christ?
Just think of how powerful our testimony for Christ would be if we lived as overcomers and victoriously every day?
This might be a freighting proposition to pray for!
We might not recognize who you are if you changed!
You might not recognize me if I changed!
WE NEED TO PRAY FOR TODAY’S ALLOTMENT OF DAILY BREAD!
Lord, yesterday is past, and tomorrow may never come. Please, help me, to become all I can become for you today!
Praise the LORD! We have a astonishing heavenly Father that desires to care for His children!
He desires to have fellowship with us and to supply our daily needs, not our greeds!
God didn’t say that He would provide the illusion we see on TV or read in Magazines – How the World Measures “Success”
We were never commanded to pray with a Nordstrom’s, Neiman Marcus or Macy’s catalog on our lap
Rom. 8:32 NIV He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all —how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Ps. 37:25 NIV I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
As the Sermon on the Mount unfolds, which is the sermon that contains Jesus’ model prayer, we come to understand that the LORD Jesus Christ has placed a moratorium on worrying!
Matt. 6:25-27 NIV “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ?
Matt. 6:28-34 NIV “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But 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 worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The verses we just read began with an imperative! DON’T WORRY!!!!
God is saying - In case you are all stressed out about all of this – Look at Nature!
I know how to take care of the birds!
I know how to take care of the flowers!
I know how to take care of you!
GOD IS SAYING – “You focus on my kingdom and concern yourself with fulfilling my will and I in turn will manage your kingdom and take care of your needs!”
Now that is a good deal! “That was easy!”
No more striving!
No more scheming!
No more manipulating!
Jesus said that it is the gentiles (the unbelievers) who consume their days and their energy thinking about how their needs will be met. They are always planning and trying to get a year’s worth of bread stored up ahead!
The LORD isn’t saying that there isn’t a place for planning, saving and working to have your needs met! An old Puritan saying went something like this:
“Work as hard as you can, save as much
as you can, and give away as much as you can.”
God wants us to live every day to seek and fulfill His will and He will in turn take care of us! He wants to meet our daily needs if we will take them to Him!
PROVIDING FOR US IS PART OF GOD’S NATURE
Jehovah-Jireh “The Lord will provide”
Gen. 22:14 NIV So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
James 1:17 NIV Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Jesus said, “I AM the Bread of Life.”
John 6:35 NIV Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
All of this means that God alone can satisfy the human heart and meet mankind’s greatest needs – physically, emotionally and spiritually!
“Fill my cup, Lord – I lift it up, Lord! Come and quench this thirsting of my soul; Bread of heaven, feed me till I want
no more – fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!”
Fill My Cup, Lord!
WHY PRAY FOR GOD’S DAILY PROVISION?
We have one more fundamental question that we need to answer this morning!
We know that our Daily Bread is all that is needed to sustain us!
We know it is the Lord’s desire to provide for us!
If God knows all things, and He does because He is Omniscient (all-knowing), then why do we have to ask Him daily?
Matt. 6:8 NIV Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
KEY POINT: Prayer isn’t for God! It is for us!
Let me repeat that statement:
Prayer isn’t for God!
It is for us!
It benefits us!
If we aren’t asking the LORD Jesus Christ to supply our needs daily then pride sets in and we drift away from the LORD.
Soon we think that what we have came from our own hands or by our own ingenuity!
Watch out when your heart is thinking those thoughts!
The sin of SELF-SUFFICIENCY is one of the
worst sins a Christian can commit!
Dan. 4:28-30 NIV All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”
Dan. 4:34-35 NIV At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”
Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way that God is GOD! The very air that you breath, the sun that warms the earth, the water on the earth, and the food that is upon the earth are all provided for by God!
It is His Universe, His planet, and we are His creation!
What all this is saying is that God the Father wants to have a relationship with us! In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve walked daily, and intimately, in the garden with God!
Adam and Eve had perfect fellowship and an endless supply of food at all times! Then one day instead of eating the daily bread provided for them by God, they ate from an alternate source and the whole race of humans on the planet all became sinners and were condemned to die!
Praying for our daily bread keeps us dependent upon God and in relationship with Him. I’m sure that it is a measure of His grace that He planned it this way!
It must be the reason why the LORD provided Manna (What is it?) in the wilderness on a daily basis for His people!
Exod. 16:4-5 NIV Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
Exod. 16:17-18 NIV The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.
Exod. 16:19 NIV Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
Exod. 16:20 NIV However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
The only exception to all of this was the day before the Sabbath were they could gather for two days and it would not spoil!
A Pastor Friend once said, “Manna, Again, at least it isn’t leftovers!”
What an easy menu! Mom, what are we having for dinner tonight?
Manna, God’s daily bread for our survival!
A Jewish Brother in Christ shared this truth about gathering Manna
When gathering Manna they had to bow down before the LORD – an act of worship – to pick up the food that God had provided for them.
God’s grace and God’s power are unfathomable! When we pray and ask Him for our daily bread we are like a child talking to their father about their needs, desires and longings!
God’s grace is limitless but He meters it out as we need it!
D. L. Moody illustrated it in a similar fashion:
Imagine trying to inhale as much air as possible and then try to hold your breath for a week, or a month, or a year! That would be silly! We breath now, and later breath from the vast repository of oxygen on our planet!
Allowing the LORD to meet our needs keeps us humble, trusting and obedient to Him! Not only does He meet our needs but it keeps our relationship with Him strong!
THE PRODIGAL SON!
Luke 15:11-12 NIV Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
What type of relationship did the father have with his son after he received all his inheritance?
He said, Adios! Hasta La Vista!
Luke 15:13-14 NIV “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.
Eventually this young man came to his senses!
He realized that even his father’s servants ate three square meals per day!
The daily bread he found was the rubbish and husks that the world has to offer –tasteless and bland!
When he repented his father killed the fattened calf and ate it!
How often do we settle for the fruit of our own hands when God
the Father wants to supply a banquet for us?
WHAT ARE THE KEYS TO HAVING THE LORD MEET OUR DAILY NEEDS?
Obedience to God – Living within His will (Abide in Christ)
John 15:7 NIV If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
Proper relationship to His church
Hebrews 10:24-25 – stay in fellowship with others
Hebrews 13:17 – obey your leaders
Be Diligently in your work
1 Thess. 4:11-12
Give God His fair share of what He has given to you!
1 Tim. 6:10
Mal. 3:10
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:
Are you asking the LORD daily to supply your needs?
This is hard for us as Americans! – Our society places a premium on self-sufficiency and independence!
Our security is dependent on hard work, a regular income, our savings account and investments.
Our security needs to be in God! Life changes quickly!
Bam!
Sickness
Job loss
Hurricane
Tsunami
Government / Political Changes
He has all-power and all-authority to meet any legitimate need that you have! He loves you and wants what is best for you! Never lose sight of that truth!
Psalm 104 speaks of God’s care for His creation!
Ps. 104:27-29 NIV These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.
Not only does the LORD take care of our physical needs but as the Bread of Life He takes care of our spiritual needs and hunger.
We need to live off of the daily bread of God’s word!
Jer. 15:16 NIV When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty.
Amos 8:11 NIV “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, when I will send a famine through the land — not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
“Give us today our daily bread.”
Bread for today if you are praying in the morning
Bread for tomorrow is you are praying at evening!
