Matthew 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.
Jesus is teaching us to pray by praying a "model prayer" for us in what we have come to know as "The Lord's Prayer". The prayer was not meant so much to be repeated, as it is to provide guidelines and principles that help us to pray in a way that is pleasing to God. Do you ever think about whether or not your prayer is pleasing to the Lord? Solomon's prayer pleased God....1 Kings 3:10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. We ought to consider whether or not our prayers please the Lord. If we pray the way Jesus taught us to pray our prayers will please God.
Jesus acknowledges the authority of the Father, praises the Father, and recognizes the sovereignty of the Father in verses 9 & 10. (see previous posts for more detail) Then in verse 11 Jesus asks for daily provision. He does not ask for next weeks provision. Jesus asks for what is needed today. When we pray, we recognize our total and utter dependency upon God to provide what is needed today. Jesus is teaching not only something about prayer, but also something about life. None of us are promised tomorrow, so we need to take each day as it comes. Jesus tells us later on in Matthew's gospel, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself." Matthew 6:34
This goes way against the grain of western world thinking. We live in the land of insurance, IRAs, 401Ks etc. There is so much built into our culture that is designed to hedge against tomorrow's difficulty. It is so easy for us even as Christians to start trusting in those things and have our sense of security in them and not in the Lord......
Jesus says the way to live is one day at a time totally dependent on the Father. May our prayer lives reflect a daily dependence upon HIM.
No comments:
Post a Comment