Give
us this day our daily bread.
As Paul said in 1
Corinthians 10:11, Israel was set forth as an example to us as the Church. Thus we see the principles Father was
seeking to teach Israel, apply to us today for He is unchanging in His
character and He desires for us to grow in our conforming to His character and
His ways. We see this understanding of
our “daily bread” coming from Exodus 16, that the Lord wanted to teach His
people to trust in Him for provision and not in themselves. It says, “every man had gathered according to
each one’s need” (16:18). We also read
what was above and beyond was wasted, and spoiled.
There is a central concept
repeated by Paul in 1 Timothy 6, that we are to be content with food and
clothing. Jesus also exhorted us that
they are not to be as the unbelievers who are constantly preoccupied with these
things, but rather seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness.
This should cause us to
pause and if need be repent, of unbelief or preoccupation and any anxiety of
whether our physical needs are going to be met or not.
It’s also a hard prayer to
relate to when we have pantries, refrigerators and freezers full of food that
will last us the next month or more. It
should cause us to examine our hearts, and to pray that we would never lose the
perspective and understanding that all we have is because of the Lord’s grace
and mercy. It should also keep us in
check that we don’t become the rich man that built bigger barns and was not
rich towards God (Luke 12). In other words he didn’t discern the reason of his
prosperity. The riches weren’t to be for
selfish desires, but to be generous towards others and to use it for Kingdom
purposes.
The second principle we see in this prayer is found
back connected to the manna. Deuteronomy 8, we read, “So He humbled you,
allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know nor did
your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread
alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
We see the connection of physical bread with spiritual
bread which we know of course refers to the Word of God (Matthew 4:4, 1 Corinthians 3, Hebrews 5, 1 Peter 2,
etc.) We need His bread daily, His Word,
His fresh “rhema” for the day. I won’t
share any more on this for sake of space, but many testimonies could be given
on the importance of waiting for His Word (I would say in addition to a regular
Bible reading plan but not necessarily) in trust of something that He knows
we’ll face for the day. O Lord, give us
today, our daily bread....
And
forgive us our debts,
As
we forgive our debtors.
Almost every time Jesus taught on prayer, He would
connect it with forgiveness. We see
that same connection with worship and forgiveness (Matthew 5:23-26) that Jesus
said for you to leave your gift (an aspect of worship) and be reconciled. So we see the same connection in prayer. If you want your prayers to be heard, you
have to be forgiven, and Jesus is clear, if you don’t forgive others trespasses
against you, count on you yourself not being forgiven by the Lord.
This so serious an issue,
that Jesus repeated this over and over.
In fact He gave one of the most sobering warnings in regard to
unforgiveness. In Matthew 18, He speaks of the unforgiving servant, who is
handed over to the “tormenters” because of his unwillingness to show the same
mercy that was shown him. And Jesus, in case
there were any there who were wondering if that applied to them (as it happens
today!) left no doubt by stating, “So My heavenly Father also will do to you
if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his
trespasses.” Remember the context is
Peter, his beloved disciple, the one He would place in a sense as “chief”
apostle asking how many times he should forgive.
We must search our
hearts. The Hebrew writer talks about
the “root of bitterness” (Hebrews 12:15), and in this context the writer
exhorts to the readers to “look diligently” or “look carefully” that no one
would fall short of the grace of God.
This is serious, dead serious!
This is about demonstrating whether we really know Him or not. A root cannot be seen, it’s deep and often
hidden. We must be careful to allow the Holy Spirit
time to reveal if there are any hidden offenses, any resentment, any grudge,
and we release that quickly to the Lord and forgive, forgive, forgive. As many have rightly pointed out, unforgiveness
is a prison we lock ourselves in! How
foolish! Unforgiveness is also a subtle
foolish statement of pride. It’s
declaring that you can exact better justice on someone who has done you wrong
than Father can. Whereas, the Word is
clear, that vengeance belongs to Him, He is the One Who repays (Romans
12). How foolish to think we can
“punish” someone with our unforgiveness.
The devil laughs, we remain bound, and God remains separated from us because
He says He won’t forgive us. It’s not
worth it! Let us now release all from any thing of the past or present, and
release those individuals into the Lord hands.
Let us fix our eyes on the Cross
and remember what great a debt we owed and worship Him for His amazing mercy
and grace that He lavished on us, that we could be called His sons and
daughters, and be entrusted the Person of the Holy Spirit to live in us, and
seal us unto the day of redemption.
And
do not lead us into temptation,
Notice
Jesus did not say, “lead us not into
sin.” He said something similar in
Matthew 26:41, Luke 22:46, and Mark 14:38, exhorting His disciples to “watch
and pray that you would not fall into temptation.” Again, he didn’t say to pray lest you fall
not into sin. In my experience (and I’m
sure you can testify) when you pray, and are depending on God, you won’t even
be tempted to sin. You won’t even find
yourself many times in tempting situations.
Prayer has a way of not only
empowering you to walk in victory in holiness, not only of God’s protective
shield being about you, but also fixing your heart so much on Him you are not
even enticed as you would be if you were not filled with the Spirit. You don’t want to get near sin! When you remain in prayer you are more likely
to walk in the fear of God and the Word states “holiness is perfected in the
fear of the Lord,” (2 Corinthians 7:1) and, “The fear of the Lord is the hatred
of evil,” (Proverb 8:13). We as Christians
can at times talk so much of the woes of temptation and the snares of sin, that
it steals from the blessed truths of the Word that call us to overcome, live
abundantly in holiness, and abide in His presence! HalleluYah!
As you pray and ask God to not lead you into temptation, not even
temptation... believe it! Believe for
you to go from glory to glory, and to a deeper level of sanctification all by
His grace and for His glory. Amen?
If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation. Let
this be one aspect of our daily intercession: "God, preserve my soul, and
keep my heart and all its ways so that I will not be entangled." When this
is true in our lives, a passing temptation will not overcome us. We will remain
free while others lie in bondage. – John Owen
But
deliver us from the evil one.
The Lord reminds us in teaching us to pray the very real aspect
of spiritual warfare in our sojourning on this earth with Him. This is a spiritual battle. It’s not “hyper” spiritual to be aware of
demonic influence or Satan’s schemes.
Rather we are commanded in 1 Peter 5 to be vigilant because there is a
very real adversary who seeks to devour us.
Paul tells us that we wrestle not with what we see physically, but with
spiritual entities. Thus, foolish is the
one who minimalizes the enemy’s ability to attack them or seek to deceive. He
is the father of lies, and he’s been at this a long time. The battle can be very subtle! It’s so subtle it can be the thinking of
thoughts that the enemy has placed there!
Just look at Peter. In one breath he’s inspired by Almighty God to
confess that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God only to turn right
around and contradict the will of God by telling Jesus to preserve His life and
then being rebuked by our Lord that this idea was actually satanic in origin!
Or look at Paul’s words
in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, showing the nature of this warfare is not carnal but
spiritual, and where does Paul place emphasis to be victorious in? Our
thoughts... “casting
down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of
God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”
(2 Corinthians 10:5). This is an
imperative, not a suggestion or simply good advice....
Probably
one of the clearest testimonies I’ve heard in how this prayer (as taught by our
Lord) applies to our lives, was by way of Pastor Yongghi Cho of South Korea. He spoke of a time he was becoming fatigued
and worn out from the ministry. It was in that time, that he came home one
night and said he was irritated and not wanting to pastor any more. He said he walked into his home and began to complain
about his house, as he continued also complaining about the ministry. He walked into his bedroom and looked at his
wife and her snoring and confessed to himself how he couldn’t stand her snore
and even saying to himself she wasn’t attractive to him. It was then he heard the Holy Spirit speak to
him, “you are under attack.” Cho said he
came into his living room, dropped to his knees and prayed the Lord’s Prayer.
When he got to “deliver me from the evil one,” he felt a shift in the
atmosphere and he said his window in his room literally shook as he felt a
presence leave. He got up from his
knees, no longer irritated, and thankful for his home and to be a pastor. He then went into his bedroom and said to
himself, “What a beautiful wife I have! And I love that snore!” His
whole attitude had changed!
How
many times do you think the enemy effects our attitude because we are under
attack and have not lifted our voices in prayer for God’s deliverance? I think it’s probably more times than we’d
like to admit or perhaps aware of.
Paul
said we are not ignorant of the enemies schemes (2 Corinthians 2). Let us remember though our degree of
authority in resisting the enemy is connected to our submission to the Lord
(James 4:7). If we are manifesting
anger, or anxiety or fear it’s showing that area is not entirely submitted to
God and we are still holding on to “control” of it in some capacity. His peace comes when there is full surrender.
For
Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Praise bookends our prayers to the Lord. Much like the Psalms
that start in praise and end in praise, so Jesus teaches us to do the
same. Similar to Paul’s teaching, that
we are to be anxious for nothing but in making our supplication known to the
Lord, we are to do so with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6,7). In the
end, it’s not about us, and it never will be, it’s about the Lord God receiving
glory, being acknowledged that its His power at work in us both to will and to
work for His good pleasure, and that our lives are to be lives for His
Kingdom’s agenda. As Jesus goes on
to teach in Matthew 6, we are to seek first His Kingdom. Let us
make sure that all of our prayers end in praise, and rightly so, for without
His great gift of salvation, we couldn’t even approach His Throne of grace to
pray to Him in the first place.
Without the blood of Jesus, we would have no hope of being heard,
cleansed and brought into right relationship.
Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain to receive, power, and honor and praise
forevermore. Worthy is the Father to
receive all glory for His great love in giving His only begotten Son to save us
and redeem us to Himself. Yours, is the
Kingdom, power and glory Lord! For from You and to You are all things, and they
and we were created for Your glory!
How appropriate to end our corporate or personal prayers with
even a doxology, like that of Jude 24, 25 or maybe of 1 Timothy 1:17!
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