9.. Lord’s Prayer: ONE DAY AT A TIME
Give us this day our daily bread – Did you know that in ancient Israel, bread was made for consumption the following day, so everyone had food in the house overnight.
This helps us to understand the parable of the neighbour who asked for food at midnight.
The neighbour came to his friend at midnight seeking food for his guests, because he knew that he would have bread ready for the needs of the following day (Luke 11: 5-8).
In praying the Lord’s prayer - Give us this day our daily bread - we seek provision from day to day to perform the tasks God has given us to do.
Ironically the Greek word for 'daily' seems to have been a word invented by the Gospel writers and one great theologian of the early Church says it appears nowhere in Greek literature, nor was it in common usage in the Greek of everyday speech.
The word probably means 'for tomorrow', and some scholars think that behind it is an Aramaic phrase meaning 'for today and tomorrow'.
In other words, we are praying that we shall want for nothing today and will be free from worry about tomorrow.
Graham was the victim of a serious road accident in which several of his bones had been broken. A friend went to visit him and was shocked to see him covered in plaster, and with his legs in traction.
'How long have you got to be like this?' she asked. He replied, Just one day at a time!'
There is here an important spiritual principle. We are called to trust God and live a day at a time rather than to worry about the future.
We also need to pray one day at a time, thus renewing our trust in the promises and presence of God who alone can sustain and support us, no matter what comes our way.
We need regular prayer as much as we need regular food if we are to remain spiritually healthy.
A Church members had been in hospital for several days and was now at rock bottom, too ill to do anything or concentrate on anything.
When she was visited by her parish priest, she told him she had received great comfort and inspiration from the hymn 'Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father'.
The words 'strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow' particularly moved her. With deep feeling she said, 'That's what it's all about, isn't it?
That's what it's all about! - God does give us the strength to live one day at a time.
Our hope is in God, and we can trust him. We do not need to know what the future holds.
Our calling is to move forward in faith and with the assurance that he will go on leading, sustaining and strengthening us.
As Cardinal Newman put it, 'I do not ask to see the distant scene, one step enough for me.
In the chapter where we find the Lord's Prayer, Matthew also records some challenging words of Jesus in which we are told to get our priorities sorted out, and to start trusting in God.
As is so often the case, Jesus starts with the ordinary things of life and through them points to deep spiritual truths:
Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear: Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Matthew goes on to describes the birds of the air; the lilies of the field and how God, the loving Father looks after them.
Are you not of more value than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
Do not worry, your heavenly Father knows what you need before you even ask.
Strive; first for the; kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble; is enough for today. MATT 6:25-34
For some, these words of Jesus are an invitation to impossible idealism. It is natural to worry about things, and we all do it.
It is important, therefore, to make a distinction between the negative response of 'worry' and the positive and practical outcome of 'concern'.
We should be concerned when problems and difficulties come our way, for it is that very concern which, strengthened by faith, we can break down inertia and so drive us to appropriate action.
Anxiety or worry is quite another matter. It can debilitate and lead to panic, which is the opposite of faith and trust.
In a church magazine it said, 'Worry is faith in the negative, trust in the unpleasant, assurance of disaster, and belief in defeat. ‘
Worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles.'
It can be like a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind, which, if encouraged, will cut a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.
In all our consideration of enormous world problems, and of the difference between worry and concern, we can gain rich insight from a famous American prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). He gets the balance right:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
