When you awoke this morning, none of you had the slightest doubt that you would be able
to eat today. Most of the time, our major concern is what we will eat, not whether
we will eat. Shall we have the chicken or the beef? Shall we have the fish or the pork?
Shall we have the potato or the pasta. These are the major problems that most of us face
concerning food.
We have a very hard time relating to those who really have no idea where they will find
their next meal. It is hard for us to even conceive that there are such people.
Occasionally we get a glimpse of them on the nightly news. We might bump into a homeless
person on the street in a major city. Even then, however, we have a difficult time
identifying with the day-to-day existence of such people.
Because of this, we tend to miss the true significance of a petition like "Give
us this day our daily bread." Most of us have enough bread for weeks or months,
if not years. We certainly have the resources to get enough.
This, however, was not the case with many of those listening to Jesus on the
mountain-side that day. Some truly did live one day at a time. They understood full well
what Jesus meant.
The message is not lost for us, however. You see, there is more that we need on a daily
basis, as we shall see. And here Jesus is teaching us how to pray for what we need. Would
you like to know how to pray in such a way that all of your needs were provided? This
prayer holds the key.
It is interesting that the first real petition in this model prayer comes after
we have begun in praise and affirmed the priority of the Kingdom and rule of God in our
lives. You see, we can only pray effectively for ourselves after gaining the perspective
that worship and Kingdom focus provides. Then, and only then, can we ask for what we need.
Now comes the petition: "Give us this day our daily bread." Our need
is for bread. Now, as I have already pointed out, most of us do not worry about our
daily bread. But the fact remains that we all still need our daily bread. We may
have a store of it. But we must use it day by day.
Bread certainly refers to the physical food that we all need. But it is also
symbolic of all the needs that we have. Each day we need provision for that day.
And we need it daily. This is how we live, one day at a time. It is impossible for
us to live in the future. We may attempt to provide for the future, but there is no
guarantee that there will be a future for any of us. All we know we have is now. This does
not mean that we should not plan. We should. But it means that we have no guarantee that
our plan will be sufficient to take care of the needs we will face, even if we have a
future.
Our lives must be replenished daily with fresh provision in so many areas. Food is an
excellent example of this. We do not simply eat our fill of food and never have to eat
again. We eat everyday. You can certainly skip a meal. You can even skip an entire day.
Some of us could skip a number of days. But the healthiest way to live is to eat several
meals a day every single day.
So it is with so many things in our lives. We need fresh provision for each day. When
God provided for the Israelites in the desert, they were commanded to gather enough food
for each day. If they gathered more than they needed, it would spoil over night. He was
teaching them the lesson that He could be trusted to provide for their needs every day.
You notice that the prayer is to the Father. He is our provider. In the Scriptures, God is referred to as Jehovah-Jireh. This is a compound name which means "the Lord will provide."
This name comes from the story in Genesis of Abraham's obedience to offer Isaac to the
Lord. You will find the story in Genesis 22. God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a
burnt offering. Deciding to obey the Lord, Abraham took Isaac and set out to the place
where God had chosen. He bound his son and laid him on the altar. As he was about to slay
his son, God stopped him. He commended him for his willingness to obey and called his
attention to a ram that he had provided for Abraham to offer. As Abraham offered the ram
as a burnt offering to God, he called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. He had
experienced the provision of God. He had come to experience first-hand the reality that
God could provide.
As a father provides for his own children, so God is our provider. James 1:17 says, "Every
good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of
lights." Philippians 4:19 says, "And my God shall supply all your
needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
God not only gives us the stuff we need, He gives us the good stuff. He gives us what
we really need, not simply what we think we need. And much of what God gives us you simply
cannot buy with money. When you are overwhelmed, you may be able to buy a bottle. When you
sober up, however, the problem is still there. What you need is supernatural peace in the
midst of the problem. What you need is the ability to deal with the situation. Only He can
give you that.
Jesus makes clear in this model prayer that we are to pray to God for our
daily provision. But there are also principles that we can discover from God's Word and
apply to our lives that will put us into a position to have our prayers answered. Let me
give you three essential principles for receiving from God.
The first is the principle of obedience. If we want to receive from God, we
must be in God's will. This was the whole emphasis of affirming the priority
of the Kingdom and the rule of Christ in our lives. If we are not obedient in several
areas concerning our walk with God, we will take ourselves out of a position to receive
from God.
The first area in which we need to be in the will of God is our fellowship with
Jesus Christ. Our relationship with Jesus must be maintained if we are going to be
in a position to pray for and receive what we need. Jesus said, in John 15:7, "If
you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for
you."
If should be clear that if we neglect our relationship with Jesus Christ we forfeit our
position in prayer. The power to pray and receive answers to those prayers is found in our
relationship with Jesus. This is our first priority. Maintain that love relationship with
Jesus Christ.
Another area in which we need to make sure we are in the will of God is our relationship
to the church. If we neglect our fellowship with one another then we will find
ourselves out of the will of God. The Bible teaches that we are to be involved in and
submitted to a local church. In Hebrews 13:17 we read, "Obey your leaders, and
submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account.
Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for
you." Unless you are related to and identified with a local assembly, you
will not be able to fulfill this command.
We again read in Hebrews 10:24-25, "And let us consider how to stimulate one
another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit
of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing
near." If we want to be in the will of God, we must be in right relationship
to one another in a local church where we can serve God.
Another area of obedience is to have diligent work habits. Paul emphases
the importance of work in writing to the church. In 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 he says, "Make
it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your
hands, just as we commanded you; so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not
be in any need." He goes so far as to say in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, "For
even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: If anyone will not work,
neither let him eat." In God's economy, there is no welfare roll for those
who refuse to do what they can do. If we refuse to be diligent about our work habits, then
we take ourselves out of a position to receive from God.
A final area of obedience is obedience in giving. So many people take
themselves out of a position where they can receive from God because they will not be
obedient in this vital matter. Listen to what 1 Timothy 6:10, "For the love of
money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from
the faith and pierced themselves with many a pang." At the root of a
stinginess towards giving to God is the love of money. If you refuse to break the bondage
of greed in your life by being obedient to God in this matter of giving, you are setting
yourself up to be pierced through with many troubles.
God has established a principle of giving and receiving. We give to His Kingdom work
through the local church. The local church is the agent of the Kingdom on earth today. It
is the only entity Jesus ever established. And we find the principle of giving the first
fruits of our possessions to God in the Old Testament where Abraham, a type of the people
of God, gave tithes to Melchizedek, a type of Christ. This was four hundred years before
the Law was given to Moses.
God has promised that if we bring His tithes into the storehouse, He will pour out
blessings upon us. If we refuse to do so, we become the recipients of curses since we are
robbing Him. Listen to Malachi 3:8-10: "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing
Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed Thee?' In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a
curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the
storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the
LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for
you a blessing until it overflows."
You see, the principle God has established is that we first give than we receive. Luke
6:38 reads, "Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of
measure it will be measured to you in return."
So we must be obedient to God in terms of our fellowship with Jesus Christ and with His
church, in terms of developing diligent work habits, and in terms of our giving.
The second principle for receiving from God is that we must have faith. Hebrews 11:6
says, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who
comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek
him." In other words, we must not only believe that God exists, we must
believe that He will indeed bless us and provide for us. This is the principle of faith.
Everything we receive from God is by faith.
Finally, the third principle for receiving from God is diligence. We must
be tenacious or diligent if we are going to be in a position to receive from God. The
story Jesus told in Luke 18 of the Widow and the Unjust Judge is all about the necessity
to be diligent in prayer before God. The widow kept coming until she got what she wanted.
And so we must keep coming until God answers our prayers. Unless we have been told no by
God, we are to continue to come until we receive an answer.
Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." He taught
us to come to our provider for our provision. If we practice the principles we find in
God's Word, we will always have our daily needs met.
Copyright (C) 1995 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property
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