Our Daily Bread

for the past several weeks, we have been looking at the Lord's Prayer. The first section deals with God: "Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven." That's all about God. Today we begin the second part of the prayer. The second part deals with us, with our needs.

Today we look at "give us this day our daily bread." It's important that we began with God first and foremost, because he must come first, and after that we can look at our own needs. If our idea of God is out of kilter, our prayers will be out of kilter, so we should start with him first. And as we come to the second part of this prayer, it still doesn't set God aside.

Even though God is primarily exalted in the first half, the second half exalts him too. For example, the fact that God gives us our daily bread, forgives us our debts, and leads us not a temptation is an expression of his power. Asking God for our daily bread is a simple thing. It reminds us of our utter and total dependence on God.

Praying for our daily bread is far from the prayers that some are praying today. I'm hesitant to even use the word praying; maybe demanding is the word I should use. I'm talking about the Prosperity Gospel: God, I deserve a new car, give it to me. God, give me money, give me lots of it right now. The list is endless, and those things are tall that you should do it, and it's a lie.

We see it all too often. Once Upon a Time, the star of this movement was Jim Baker. I don't quote Jim Baker often, but I have saved this quote for years, and you likely remember Jim and Tammy Faye from the PTL show. They preached the prosperity gospels, and it all came tumbling down. Jim ended up in federal prison for a while.

This quote is from his book entitled I was wrong. Jim Baker wrote, "For years I had embraced and espoused the gospel that some Skeptics had granted a Prosperity Gospel. I didn't mind the label; on the contrary, I was proud of it. I even got to the point where I was teaching people, don't pray, God's your will be done, when you're praying for health or wealth. You already know it is God's will for you to have those things. To ask God to confirm his will when he's already told you what he will, what his will is, is an insult to God," Baker Road.

He went on to say, "It is as though you don't really trust him and believe that he is good at his word. Instead of praying thy will be done when you want a new card, just claim it. Pray specifically and tell God what kind you want." Baker said, "Such arrogant, such foolishness, such sin." He said, "I was deeply grateful that God had not struck me dead as a false prophet." Hopefully he saw the light and still does.

Back to our prayer: "give us this day our daily bread." In our society, this prayer seems a bit outdated. I mean, there's bread everywhere, a bread store on every corner. Kroger in Publix and ALDI just down the road are full of bread. They're spread everywhere.

Why do Believers in the Land of Plenty need to ask for daily bread? What are we missing when we pray this, even though we are not hungry and our pantries are full? And teaching us to pray "give us this day our daily bread," Jesus reminds us that God is our provider. We are absolutely and positively totally dependent upon him.

You'll breathe 25 000 breaths today or so. Your heart will beat around 115 000 times. God gives that to us. We should be thankful for everything.

Today I do not have to say to God that my cupboard is bare and I have no idea where my next meal is coming from, thankfully. Yeah, I realize that it is by his hand that I am fed. Knowing that it is God who provides for us is important. "Give us this day our daily bread" helps us connect to our father, and it helps us to be thankful.

We should always come to God knowing our total dependence for all we need to sustain us from day to day comes from him. We're not given license to ask for great riches, but we're encouraged to make our needs known to him. I love how proverbs 30 verses 8 and 9 sum this up: "First, help me never tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty or riches. Give me just enough to satisfy my needs, for If I Grow Rich, I may deny you and say, who is the Lord? And if I'm too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name."

It seems to me that there's more bread in our world now than ever before. Let me ask you this: is today's world more thankful than the world you were born into? I doubt it. It seems that the more we have, the more ungrateful we can become.

When we pray "give us this day our daily bread," we need to look back. Has God answered that prayer for you? Yes, he has, every day of your life, as he has given you and me more than bread. We should be most thankful.

Pray with me. Father God, thank you for all the gifts that have come for you, from you. We ask forgiveness When We complain. Sometimes we can be like the children of Israel, complaining there's not enough when we have enough. Help us to know our dependence on you, totally and utterly.

Let us thank you for each breath, each morsel, each heartbeat. Thank you for being so good to us. In Jesus name, amen. God bless.