The Lord’s Prayer
5-25-2011 Vol. 4 Part 7
Psalm 35:10-22 NKJV All my bones shall say, "LORD, who is like You, Delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, Yes, the poor and the needy from him who plunders him?" Fierce witnesses rise up; They ask me things that I do not know. They reward me evil for good, To the sorrow of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; And my prayer would return to my own heart. I paced about as though he were my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one who mourns for his mother. But in my adversity they rejoiced And gathered together; Attackers gathered against me, And I did not know it; They tore at me and did not cease; With ungodly mockers at feasts They gnashed at me with their teeth. Lord, how long will You look on? Rescue me from their destructions, My precious life from the lions. I will give You thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You among many people. Let them not rejoice over me who are wrongfully my enemies; Nor let them wink with the eye who hate me without a cause. For they do not speak peace, But they devise deceitful matters Against the quiet ones in the land. They also opened their mouth wide against me, And said, "Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen it." This You have seen, O LORD; Do not keep silence. O Lord, do not be far from me. Father God you are Holy, Hallowed be thy name, we praise you and give your thanks for all you do for us. We ask that you provide us with what we need each day while living here on earth. Give us manna from your Heavenly kingdom so that we will have the strength to do your will. Thank you Jesus! Amen!
Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.
The Lord’s Prayer starts out and end all about God our Father. In the middle we have a chance to ask God to provide us our needs. It is like a valley with a hill top on either side. God is on the peaks overlooking the valley we are in. You’re thinking about now that God knows what we need and you are correct, but it goes much deeper than that. It isn’t just things like food, water, clothes, jobs, etc. These are tangible things, which most of us take for granted, although God does provide these things, we don’t. Just like the manna from Heaven that God provided to the Israelites so they could sustain life. The Psalmist describes these things like this; Psalm 104:10-21 NKJV He sends the springs into the valleys; They flow among the hills. 11 They give drink to every beast of the field; The wild donkeys quench their thirst. 12 By them the birds of the heavens have their home; They sing among the branches. 13 He waters the hills from His upper chambers; The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works. 14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth, 15 And wine that makes glad the heart of man, Oil to make his face shine, And bread which strengthens man's heart. 16 The trees of the LORD are full of sap, The cedars of Lebanon which He planted, 17 Where the birds make their nests; The stork has her home in the fir trees. 18 The high hills are for the wild goats; The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers. 19 He appointed the moon for seasons; The sun knows its going down. 20 You make darkness, and it is night, In which all the beasts of the forest creep about. 21 The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their food from God. Meaning God provides the animals all they need, along with vegetation to sustain our life. If there was no vegetation, there would be no life. But I’m talking about our spiritual, emotional, love, hope, joy, peace, understanding, self control, type of things we cannot touch. Things only God can provide and give us for total comfort, security, assurance, etc. These things are also included in our daily needs/bread.
You ask, if God provides all things for us, then why is there famine in the world? This question goes far beyond the scope of this lesson, but in a nutshell it boils down to this. We live in a fallen world which starvation, disease, and death are a part of. Paul writes this in; Romans 8:19-24 NLT For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don't need to hope for it, 25 but if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) What Paul is referring to is; there will be catastrophes, like food shortages, war, tornadoes, and earthquakes that will afflict mankind until Jesus Christ returns and rids the world of sin and corruption. These natural disasters will intensify in end times (Matthew 24:6-8 NKJV And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.). Verse 19 is referring to those that are Born Again and have been adopted into God’s family.
Can we live on bread alone? It depends on your definition of life. Are you only concerned with living here on earth or eternal life? Matthew 4:4 NASB But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" John 6:35 NASB Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. If we live on bread alone that gives nourishment to our bodies so we can sustain life, what good is that? If that is all we live for, where will we end up eternally? It won’t be in Heaven with our Creator. This is what Jesus is talking about in these two verses. When we ask God to give us our daily bread, we need to ask for spiritual food that will supply our spirit nutritionally, so that we can be born spiritually. If we are Born Again then it will be food for our spirit so we can ward off evil and temptation. So what is every word/food that proceeds out of the mouth of God, that word is the Bible which is Jesus Christ. John 1:1 NASB In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. What is the bread of life? Jesus is the bread of life, Jesus is the Word, the Word is the Bible and by eating of the bread of life/reading his Word, and above all believing in what Jesus did at the Cross our spirit will be satisfied.
I know what you might be thinking about now, and that is if we ask God to give us our daily bread each day could that be termed as vain repetition? No, because stop and think about who is giving the instruction for the prayer to the apostles. It is Jesus Christ and you can be assured that he won’t lead us astray. Why would Jesus tell us to pray every day for our needs? Would it be because we are human and we often forget to pray on a daily basis? After all the Israelites forgot about God pretty quick when Moses went up on the mountain for 40 days by making a golden calf. I think we are instructed to pray daily for our bread so we keep God in our thoughts daily more than anything. It goes hand in hand with Exodus 20:3 NASB "You shall have no other gods before Me. By asking daily it humbles us by realizing we are nothing without God. Matthew 5:5 NKJV Blessed are the meek (humble), For they shall inherit the earth. We can’t take in enough of God’s grace in one day to supply what we need for the week, although some people do this by going to church on Sunday thinking they have fulfilled their religious duty. Scripture states we have to put on our armor daily and by asking God to give us our daily bread/spiritual food daily is part of putting on the armor of God.
So what do we pray for? Money, fancy cars, big houses, boats, etc. No we are to pray for our daily needs. Everyone has different needs and some of the needs are to sustain life or tangible things like, a homeless person might pray for food or shelter. A childless couple might pray for God to bless them with a baby. An unsaved person should pray for God’s saving grace (salvation). On a spiritual sense we should pray for scripture understanding, a closer relationship with God, the fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Don’t forget about that two letter word “us”. It says to “give us this day our daily bread”. If we have the fruit of the Spirit within us, we will automatically pray for others and ask God to supply them their needs for the day. This is a very good thing, because by doing this, we as Christians will reflect the light of Jesus to others.
What it boils down to is this. If we are true Christians we will pray and ask God our Father to give us our daily bread in such a manner, that His will be done for us, in us, and through us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth,
Unless you are Born Again, you cannot enter into Heaven, the Kingdom of God."
Bill
Last Week’s Trivia: What kind of rock killed Goliath?
Answer: I was asked this by a friend and here is what he told me. It was the faith that David had in God that knocked Goliath down. Jesus is often referred to as our rock, so Jesus was the rock that slew Goliath. 1 Samuel 17:37 NKJV Moreover David said, "The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you!" 1 Samuel 17:45-46 NKJV Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
This week’s Trivia: How many rivers flow from the land of Eden and what are their names?
Dr. David Jeremiah, Prayer The Great Adventure (Copyright 1997)
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