The first three requests in the Lord’s Prayer are about God — so like God they are majestic, huge, and inspiring. The lesson Jesus clearly means for us to learn in this prayer is that God comes first, and only when God is first does everything else matter or fall into place.
The second three requests are about us — and like us they are daily, mundane, unspectacular. Yet, these things are mingled in one prayer, because they are meant to be mingled in our life (and prayer life). Our heavenly Father knows we have needs, Jesus says later in the Sermon on the Mount.
But we are not turning away from God’s glory to our needs; we are turning to God’s glory through the supply of our needs! In other words, this is not a “I’ve scratched your back by asking for your will to be done, now you scratch my back by supplying me desires” prayer.
No, rather it is saying, “I love you, Jesus, more than I love your gifts; so I will not become a servant to your gifts, but will bring them into submission and service to me as I submit to and serve you.”
It is saying with Paul that, whatever I do — even necessary and some-times boring tasks — I will do to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31
It is all but impossible to consider this request in the Lord’s Prayer for daily bread, without thinking of the daily supply of manna that God provided in the wilderness. And, interestingly, there he emphasized the fact that the manna was supplied to teach them their need, not of bread, but of God! “He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
In other words, God says, “I gave you food, so you would learn that I give food! I gave you food, which you depend on, so that you would learn you don’t ultimately depend on food but on me!”
Faith Confession: Father, my total dependency is on you and I believe that you are the Source, Supplier and Sustainer of that I need to live the Victorious, Abundant life that Jesus came to give me, in the name of Jesus, Amen!
Sir, thank you for continually supplying the Word!!!
ReplyDeleteAgain thank you Sir for what you are doing on this Blog and what you do everyday.
ReplyDeleteGoing to GOD for our daily needs to be supplied is a must. HE requires us to come to HIM in faith trusting and believing, fully aware and confident that HE will supply all of our needs(spirit, soul, and body) according to HIS riches. GOD is CREATOR of all things, in heaven and on earth, of the heavens and the earth, and of all them who dwell there in. GOD is the owner of the job you work on, the supervisor in charge, and the paycheck you receive. So, why not just go to GOD who owns all things, who gives all things, to supply all things, so that we can do all things?
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