Sunday, May 13, 2018

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread (The Lord's Prayer Part IV)


GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
The Lord’s Prayer Pat-IV, (Matthew 6:9-13) 4/13/2018
            Stress and worry break us down.  They are the unseen source of our headaches, backaches, heartaches and belly aches. They produce everything from obesity to obscenity, from constipation to diarrhea, and from impatience to impotence. They give us knotted stomachs, sleepless nights, high blood pressure, low morale.  They make our tempers short and our days long. Dale Carnegie, in How to Stop Worrying and Start Living notes, “You do not get stomach ulcers from what you eat, you get ulcers from what is eating you.”
            What are you worried about the most today? What is eating you up and keeping you awake at nights? Has worry became a close companion, that doesn’t want to part from you? What do most people worry about any way? What is the antidote for worry? Is it possible to trust God for our daily needs? We have been studying the Lord’s Prayer that our Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples. The first three petitions in this prayer were directed toward God. It began by establishing a relationship between us and God as our heavenly father. We learned that God’s name is Holy therefore it is to be regarded Holy. We learned that we are not only to pray but also to work for God’s Kingdom to come and for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
            Today, we will look at a very mundane concern. No matter who you are, where you come from, most of your waking time is consumed with this concern. Jesus taught his disciples to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Or bread for tomorrow or our needful bread. Why did Jesus include this basic concern for food in this prayer? Is Jesus encouraging passivity? Are we not supposed to work for food rather than simply praying for it? How can we trust God to meet our basic needs? What provisions did God make in the scriptures to meet our daily needs? Before we go further, let’s look at the context in which the disciples were taught to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

I. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD:
            Praying for food was one of the most common prayers in the households of ancient Israel. It was offered regularly inorder to teach their sons and daughters to depend on God for their daily food. I want us to pay attention to the words, it is “Our daily Bread, not “My daily bread.” What would that teach us? The whole Lord’s Prayer was offered in the context of a larger community. Unlike in our highly individualistic western society, there is no individualism in the Kingdom of God.  Citizens of the kingdom are encouraged not only to look after your own interests and needs but also the interests and needs of those who are less fortunate
            We live in a land that is plentiful, a land that flows with milk and honey to give you a biblical comparison, yet millions in our country alone are suffering due to hunger. The 2014 study reveals that each year, the Feeding America network of food banks provides service to 46.5 million people in need across the United States, including 12 million children and 7 million seniors. So, when we pray for our daily bread, we are also praying for all those who might be struggling without food here in the USA and around the world.
            This prayer is offered as a reminder to be grateful, lest we forget where everything is coming from. This precisely was the problem with the Israelites after they reached the promised land. God had to remind them to be grateful and not to forget all that they had was from God. Let’s consider these verses in Deuteronomy:  Duet 8:3-4, “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.”  Think of the logistics of feeding and clothing over 600,000 people for 40 years? Yet God did it!
This scripture tells us that man needs not only physical bread but also the life-giving words of God in order to survive.  God also reminded them to observe His commands and walk in obedience to him. He further said, “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.” How are we grateful for what God has given us?
            Another reason for this prayer was to teach the Israelite community then and, us today that God can be trusted for our daily sustenance. Prov 30:8-9, “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord? ‘Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” I think this a very healthy way to pray to God. This would keep us from becoming greedy and run after wealth and also from becoming thieves to survive.
            Thousands of years later, a zealous Jew named Paul who became a follower of Jesus Christ taught his young disciple Timothy how to keep himself from the traps of the enemy. I Timothy 6:6-10, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
            Again, in this passage we see what the two most basic needs of all human being are. They are food to eat and clothes to wear. If we have them, we will be content. But we know how many us are discontent, in spite of having plenty of food to eat and fine clothes to wear. That was the core message of the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is about continual day by day dependency on God our heavenly Father, who is loving and mindful of our daily needs.
He is also willing, and more than able to provide whatever our needs may be. Over the years of walking with God I can firmly attest to this truth that God can and is willing to provide the needs of His children. How do I know? Because the Bible tells me so, and also I have personally experienced God’s providential care over and again in my life.  He is trust worthy.

II. GOD’S PROVISION FOR HIS CREATION & MANKIND
            Let me share a few principles of God’s provision from the passage we read in Matthew 6th chapter, and then I will conclude with a couple of personal stories. After giving the disciples a class room teaching on prayer Jesus took them out on a field trip to show them how this prayer, give us this day our daily bread practically works.  Vs 25-28, “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.
Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds…Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.” (The Message).
            Jesus admonished his disciples to consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field and learn from them. He taught them a principle of simple trust by saying, “If God could take care of the birds and the lilies in that fashion, how much more he will take care of you.” The key principle to receiving food, water, clothing and whatever other needs from the father is seeking God’s Kingdom and his righteousness first. What does that mean? Seeking God’s Kingdom means to keep God, his kingdom values, and priorities utmost in our mind.
It also means doing the right thing even when it hurts. When we do these in all honesty and earnestness I guarantee you that you will have God’s provision, meeting your needs, sometimes your wants and desires as well. If you could ask any missionary who had been in the mission field serving God in another country about God’s provision, they will have plenty of stories to tell you of how God met their needs.  Here are a couple of my stories.
            Very early in Youth With A Mission I learned this principle of Seeking God’s Kingdom first. You have heard me share how God provided two “Rotis” when I was hungry. This was another food story: Once I was teaching in a Discipleship Training School in the Northern Part of India. That base was going through financial challenges. They didn’t have money to buy meat, and other extra stuff. Our only staple food was rice and beans for five days. I could sense the grumbling in the camp, like the Israelites, “do we have to eat beans and rice every day?
            It was Friday, during my class I said, let’s write on the board all we were thankful to God for. We filled up the entire board with things that we were thankful to God and began to praise God. As we were praising, one of the local church young man came to the class and said, “My mother is inviting all of you for dinner.” Oh, you can hear the shouts of rejoicing. To cut a long story short, that evening we had a feast, we ate to our hearts content. The lesson of this story is, when you grumble perhaps all you get is, “beans and rice,” may be not even that, but when you are grateful and praise God, you will get to your heart’s content. 
Here is another story! As a young Christian I always took great comfort in this scripture, Psalm 37:25, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” This scripture tells us that God will not forsake those who seek Him, and also, He will provide for their children as well. This was when we wanted to send our eldest daughter Joanna to a Christian school in Boston.
The non-refundable admission fee was nearly half of my pay check. We wondered how in the world we will every pay the rest of the school fees. But we trusted God and took a huge step of faith and paid the non-refundable fees. Thank God she got the admission; we were able to pay the school fees during the high school years, not only for her but for both of her sisters as well. We give praise and glory to God, at end of this month Joanna will be graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont. God’s faithfulness endures to all generations
            In closing, what are you worried about today? What is keeping you awake. The antidote for worry and anxiety is trust and gratefulness. Jesus is here encouraging us to ask the father to give us our daily bread and not to worry about tomorrow. When you are down with stress and worry all, you need to do is to look at the Birds, and the lilies, and be assured that you are more precious in the sight of God and your heavenly father knows your need and He will provide.
In James 1:17, we read, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Our God is the same yesterday today and forever, he never changes. Therefore, with confidence let’s pray: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be your name. ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ‘Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ‘And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.!