“When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread”
Luke 11:2-3
The repetition of going to God daily for bread is not just to have our needs met, but to deepen our relationship with the Father. This portion of the Lord’s prayer grows our dependence on God, allowing us to trust that He will faithfully meet us in our circumstances and needs. In this week’s Sunday message, Pastor Ryan Schlachter gives three reasons why we need to come to God for our daily bread.
The Context: Bread in the Jewish context was representative of provision and sustenance. Some scholars estimate that up to 70% of a Galilean’s diet during the time of Jesus was bread.
Why it Matters: Jesus is teaching the disciples to pray for their daily material needs to be met. Every single thing that is a necessity in your life, He is faithful to give you.
The daily bread we ask for is representative of necessities, not luxuries.
Three reasons why we need to come to God for daily bread:
- Deepens our Dependence
- If we are not consistently going to God for our provision, we become independent people who think that we are the source of all we have.
- Praying each day for our daily bread realigns our hearts to the fact that God is the only one that provides for us.
- We will never have a deep dependence on God if we do not think he is the one who gave all that we have to us. What we have in front of us is because of the grace of God.
- Deepens our Trust
- We are like the people of Israel in the way that we would rather go back to being enslaved in our sin than to trust and eat what God is going to miraculously provide. (see Exodus 16)
- Oftentimes, if my needs get met, it doesn't lead to gratitude but a spirit of self-sufficiency.
- Praying for daily provision for all of our needs in the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual deepens our trust that God is actually faithful.
- We cannot trust God if we only exercise it in things that grow our trust every once in a while.
- “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” Matthew 6:26
- Deepens our Delight
- Jesus comes down from heaven and tells his disciples he is the bread of life, meaning he is actually the thing that our hearts need.
- The more you start to experience the richness and the goodness of Jesus, the more you start to delight in him. You will never delight in God if you never depend on God.
- The invitation for daily bread is given to us to redirect our hearts to the source of what actually provides fulfillment.
Additional Scripture:
Psalm 34:8
Psalm 20:7
Matthew 7:8-11
