Last week I started writing a series of posts on the Lord's Prayer from a message I preached at Gateway a couple of weeks ago. You can listen to my message here. This prayer is the foundation of all Christian prayer. It provides shape and meaning to our faith. It was taught by Jesus, in part, to show us what the point of Christian spirituality is and how to get to the point in our prayers.
Jesus shows us that point of prayer is seeking to weave the Kingdom of God into a broken and fallen world. The first half of the pryaer is towards God and the second part is towards the earth. The first half is concerned with God’s honor, kingdom, and purpose, and only after that do our own needs find a place.
When Jesus says, “Give us this day our daily bread” that is simply saying “Father I want to be dependent upon you... I know everything I have is coming from your hand.”
This is reminiscent of the way that God provided manna for the children of Israel as they wandered through the desert. Yet in our world, with all of our stuff, it is difficult to remain dependent on God. We look to therapists and medication and money and vacations.
But God says, “Would you rely on me for your daily rations? Would you remain dependent upon me for the very sustenance of your life? For your daily piece of bread? And would you remember to pray and give to those who do not even have that? For in my Kingdom everyone has just enough to get them through each new day and it all comes from me."
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