August 19, 2007
Rev. Terry D. Campbell

The Living Prayer: God’s Provision
Matthew 6:11

“’This, then, is how you should pray: . . . Give us today our daily bread.’”

Jesus never seemed to worry or be rushed—even though He only had a short time in which to do what He came to do—that is, save everyone in the world. He didn’t panic when things weren’t going right. The disciples sensed Jesus’ inner peace and strength and sensed that it had something to do with the times He spent in prayer. “Lord,” Peter says in a voice mixed with urgency and anticipation, “whatever it is that you experience when you disappear for those long stretches and pray, we really want to know about it.”^[iv]

This led Jesus to teach the disciples how to pray. Jesus instructed them to pray for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will be done. Then to ask God for their daily provision. What Jesus taught them was challenging. They were use to just asking God for help. But Jesus called them to a grander vision.

I. I am to care about everyone’s needs.

Jesus, again, has us praying in the context of “us”. “Give us this day . . .” Not only are we to think in terms of God caring about everyone, but we, also, are to be concerned about and involved with other people’s needs.

Do you remember the parable Jesus told about the Good Samaritan helping the hurt and robbed Jewish traveler? Two “good” people had already passed by this man. The one who was supposedly the “outcast” helped. “Who was the true neighbor to the hurt man,” Jesus asked? “The man who helped.” “That is right,” Jesus answered. So listen up!

Jesus taught us that that second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor AS you love yourself. That includes two things: Love your neighbor, but don’t stop loving YOU. And, in loving yourself, don’t forget to love your NEIGHBOR.

From the beginning of their walking with Jesus, He taught the disciples to meet needs. Once a crowd had listened to Jesus teach all morning. They got hungry. Jesus told the disciples, “You give them something to eat.

The Christians in the early Church were NOT communists, but “us” Christians. They sold some of their property when they saw needs and wanted to help. We are to be “us” Christians.

For whose needs, besides your families own, do you pray? With whom are you actually involved in helping to meet their needs for those who can’t take care of it themselves. This is where it can be of benefit to participate in our once-a-month Saturday morning SOS (Serving Our Savior), or the fall program that our Care Team is leading to help our own members help each other. Living this prayer means being “us” Christians!

II. Praying for daily bread teaches me consistent trust in God.

Praying for daily bread is reminiscent of when God provided the hungry people of Israel in the desert with manna. He gave it to them one day at a time. He expressly told them to only gather as much as they needed for one day—except on Friday, the day before the Sabbath—so they wouldn’t have to gather it on the Sabbath. God was teaching trusting God for tomorrow as well as eating from God’s provision today.

I am to find to peace in God’s providing for me. My security is to be God, not the abundance of things. Our problem is pointed out in Proverbs 30:8b-9 (MsgB)-“. . . . Give me enough food to live on, neither too much nor too little. ⁹If I’m too full, I might get independent, saying, ‘God? Who needs him?’ If I’m poor, I might steal and dishonor the name of my God.”

Our living prayer includes the movement to overcome worry with trust (another word for faith) in God’s desire and ability to provide for us! Matthew 6:28-34-“’And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’”

We must constantly remind ourselves that God is on His children’s side! Matthew 7:11 -“’If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!’”

III. God promises to provide necessities, but not necessarily niceties.

Bread = our needs, not necessarily our wants. With our limited insight and raging desires it is sometimes hard for us to distinguish between the two. But God, as the perfect Parent, can and will. We need to trust Him in that!

Even Jesus experienced this! Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, before He was arrested and crucified—prayed, “let this cup pass from me!” He prayed it three times and with intense passion and fervent desire. But when He saw God’s plan, He prayed, “Nevertheless, not my will but Your be done, God.” We can pray that any time and all times.

But we must be careful not to limit God. We don’t serve a small God, but the mighty God! Ephesians 3:20-21-“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

God DOES want to make sure our needs are met—for the sake of His children, but also we can’t share if we don’t have it ourselves. Philippians 4:19-“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

It may be God saying—“Here’s manna”—or some other unusual way of providing what we need. It may be God saying, “Get a job because if you won’t work, you won’t eat.”

But let us cast aside worry and fear, choosing to live with trust in God’s provision.

Luke 6:38 -“’Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’”

Mark 10:29-30-“’I tell you the truth,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.’”

What will you do now?

It is true that we CANNOT out-give God! Our faithfulness to God will be surpassed by God’s faithfulness to us. Pray and live as “us” Christians—free from worry because we are filled with trust in our heavenly Father. Amen.