The honour of our
heavenly Father's name, the coming
of his kingdom and his will done on
earth as it is in heaven. These form
the three magnificent state rooms of
this great house of prayer. They set
the vision, goal and aim for all the
more obviously practical petitions
that follow.
The petitions for
daily bread, a forgiving spirit and
spiritual safety do not stand on
their own any more than a cluster of
kitchens, cloakrooms, store rooms
and security rooms would be built in
the place of a great house at the
centre of a royal estate! The
kitchens and cloakrooms are only
there to make possible the banquets
and royal receptions of the great
state rooms, and so it is with this
majestic prayer. The petitions
concerning our basic needs and
safety make it possible for
disciples to live freely and
wholeheartedly to the glory of God.
We are taught to pray
for bread, not just for ourselves
and our own comfort, but bread that
we might be free from anxious care
and so free to live for the glory of
our heavenly Father. We are taught
to pray for forgiveness and for a
willingness to forgive, not to make
us 'nice people,' but to enable us
to live for the Lord and to work
together with one another as a team.
And we are taught to pray for
safety, again, not for our personal
comfort, but rather that we might be
able to live as free and faithful
servants of the King.
For many of us, however, it is not
until we arrive at 'daily bread'
that we feel, "Ah, now the prayer
really begins. Bread is something
that really matters to me. Before it
was 'spiritual' and hard to
understand, but now we have arrived
at 'bread' it really begins to be
relevant." Fair enough, but this is
only because it meets us where we
are, rather than where we ought to
be! Having missed the vision of the
first three petitions, petitions
that lie at the heart of the prayer,
we are like the teacher's nightmare
of youngsters on an outing to a
great house, hurrying through the
magnificent state rooms with eyes
only for the sweet shop!
Nevertheless, what an
encouragement that God our heavenly
Father cares about our stomachs. He
cares about the things we need day
by day; cares about these basic
practical details. Samuel Johnson
was once challenged about the amount
of care he was taking over his
stomach. Dr. Johnson replied, 'My
dear sir, if I did not take good
care of this place I would not be
able to take good care of anything
else.' It is a fair point, and this
is precisely the reason why our Lord
taught us to pray, 'Father, give us
today our daily bread.'
Here in this petition are the
kitchens, store-rooms, provision
rooms and accounting rooms of the
great house. They are there to keep
the table supplied and to make
possible the day to day running of
the house. They are there to give
freedom from anxiety by supplying
all that is necessary, 'bread' for
today and 'bread' for tomorrow;
exactly the thoughts that lie behind
this petition. The great difference
to note is that our Lord is not
talking about the grand and the
luxurious but about the simple,
basic necessities of life. Our Lord
is speaking of physical provision;
food to eat, of which bread is the
basic example.
If God withholds our
daily bread we will be so filled
with anxiety about our next meal and
where it is coming from, that we
will not be able to live seeking
first the kingdom of heaven or
living for God. We will be
completely overwhelmed with anxiety.
People are anxious enough should a
preacher go on too long and lunch be
spoiled! But that is a very
different thing from the
overwhelming anxiety of actually not
knowing where the next meal is
coming from or how on earth we are
going to escape from an ever
spiralling pile of unpaid bills.
Our Lord was
concerned that we should not be
filled with such anxious care; that
we should be able to live before
him, as his people, free from this
kind of pressure. Therefore, he
taught us to pray, 'Give us today
our daily bread.'
Bread is a picture and symbol of all
that we need physically, mentally
and spiritually to live in this
world and in this body in a way that
brings honour to our heavenly
Father.
Our
physical needs
Primarily we need food; food both
for ourselves and for those who
depend on us. At harvest time we
acknowledge with the hymn writer
Matthias Claudius that:
All good gifts
around us,
Are sent from heaven
above.
Ultimately, all that
we need comes by the good hand of
God. 'Lord God, thank you for your
provision of food, bless those who
farm, produce and distribute it and
spare us from such poverty or famine
that the things of God are forgotten
because of our concern for bread.'
But 'daily bread'
also includes all our basic human
needs, for example shelter and warm
clothing. We are taught in this
petition to pray, 'Spare us from
such poverty, war, civil unrest,
lawlessness or family strife that we
are forced out of our homes.' These
things strike at the very roots of
both godly living and of our
physical well-being. Family
breakdown and strife at home reduces
too many in our society to isolated,
rootless, homeless, bed and
breakfast, bed-sit or cardboard-box
dwellers with all the temptations
and dangers of exploitation, drugs
and sexual abuse. War brutalises us
and makes us of necessity killers of
our fellow human beings, and in the
extreme reduces us to hungry,
threadbare refugees all but forced
to steal and fight as we compete for
food and temporary shelter.
As Hugh Latimer and
his fellow reformers preached on
'daily bread' they said something
rather surprising. They said, 'When
you pray for daily bread, pray first
for the government.' Surprising but
right, for upon our government,
their policies, and God's good hand
upon them, will depend whether we
have wealth or poverty, enough or
too little bread.
Pray that our
government may be able to defend us
from those who would bring us into
subjection, for a subject people are
rarely free from poverty. War itself
will very quickly consume our wealth
and reduce us to being anxious about
shelter and food.
Pray, too, that they
may be able to maintain justice
within our land for if our goods are
constantly being stolen or if we are
often defrauded then we shall very
soon be anxious about daily bread.
Pray, also, for the
fair distribution of wealth within
society as this is very much a
matter of government policy.
Unrestrained, market forces will
always tend to allow the rich to
become richer and the poor to become
poorer, which in turn leads to deep
resentment and lawlessness. It is a
very unfashionable thought, but a
large and growing middle income
group is a token of good government
and a very healthy sign in a
society. Whereas the growth of a new
super-rich class and of a deprived
and increasingly violent underclass
is a clear token of government
failure.
Pray, too, for those
voluntary organisations who, out of
compassion, are seeking to alert
governments to injustice and to
bring help to people whose basic
needs are not being met. Pray for
our government, that they might have
discernment, in the face of the many
competing pressure groups, to have
an open ear for those who speak for
the truly needy and so fulfil their
function before God, that each of us
might have daily bread.
Pray and thank God
for stable, godly government whose
task it is to guard and oversee the
just provision of our basic human
needs. The reformers saw these
things clearly and yet it is so up
to date! Fresh and modern after 400
years!
Our
social and medical needs
Our basic human needs also include
mental and physical health. We live
in a fallen world where any of us
may go through times when we are
simply not able to manage; our job
collapses, our home life collapses,
our health or mental health
collapses, our strength fails. Then
we need to pray for courage, for
practical and medical help, for
godly strength to face each day and
for a willingness in such
circumstances to let go our proud
independence and be interdependent
as God intended. For God, our
heavenly Father, has given us one
another, family, friends and the
wider society, to provide for each
other in our hour of need. In such
an hour we are taught to pray for
all that we need to face another day
in a way that brings honour to our
Father in heaven.
Our
spiritual needs
Our Lord spent considerable time in
prayer and meditation, he did not
live by 'bread alone'. We, too, need
spiritual nourishment if we are to
live as God's people in this world.
For example we need opportunity to
be alone and quiet before God. We
also need an opportunity to read and
think about his word, spiritually
feeding ourselves day by day. We
need the help of godly speakers and
writers who can explain God's word
to us and help us to shape our
thinking and our living to please
him. We also need the fellowship,
support and encouragement of
Christian friends. These things are
as basic and necessary as bread.
'Lord, give us a
spiritual hunger to know you better,
and a longing to serve you more
faithfully. Thank you for the
spiritual food you provide. Keep us
spiritually alive, feeding and
growing as disciples day by day.'
We live in a hard
world where Christ is shunned and
God is forgotten. Pray then for a
godly graciousness and for courage.
Pray for strength and wisdom to face
particular situations. These things,
too, are daily bread. We need them
fresh day by day if we are going to
live as God's people. Day by day,
pray: 'Fill me afresh with your Holy
Spirit that I might live today in a
way that pleases you.' These are
prayers for daily bread in the
setting of the whole prayer -
seeking first our heavenly Father's
kingdom and his honour. Put them
where they belong! These are not
prayers for daily bread for our
satisfaction, let alone for our
personal comfort or pleasure, they
are petitions that we might live for
God in his world.
The
part that is ours to play
Here, we are in a sense beggars;
'Lord God give us day by day our
bread.' We are utterly dependent on
him, and yet he answers that prayer
only in very exceptional
circumstances with 'food parcels
from heaven.'
There are those who
regard it as a mark of being
'spiritual', to choose not to use
God's ordinary ways of providing for
our daily needs. On this basis they
refuse to take ordinary steps to
raise money to buy bread, refuse
medical help or refuse to prepare
when speaking in public. 'The Lord
will provide, it shows lack of faith
for me to use common sense, use his
ordinary provision or play any
active part.' Sadly, this is not an
uncommon spiritual error, an
apparently 'very spiritual' idleness
which presumes on the goodness of
God. Another great mistake, again
abandoning God's ordinary way of
providing for our needs, is the
passive fatalism which says, 'I
choose to do nothing - whatever will
be will be - it is the will of God.'
Our heavenly Father's
normal way of providing for our
daily needs is by the skills he has
given us to develop and use, and by
sweat and hard work. For this reason
true prayer is dangerous! It always
has a reforming, life-style changing
element in it. We have to be willing
to be a part of the answer to our
own prayer. We cannot truly pray for
bread without being willing to work
for it. We will only truly pray for
better relationships when we are
willing to guard our own tongues,
change our own attitudes or control
our own behaviour. We will only
truly pray for spiritual nourishment
and growth when we are willing to
set aside time for our heavenly
Father and his word and actually
allow his word to shape our daily
living. We are utterly dependent on
God for all that we need; we have
also a part to play by self
discipline, by skill and by
determined hard work.
The farmer prays,
'Lord give us today our daily
bread,' and he also farms. We have
got to hold these together. We live
in a world where our bread, pay
packet or salary cheque normally
comes by the sweat of our brow. The
New Testament teaches that if we
wilfully choose not to play our
part, we should not eat either!
Oliver Cromwell's
advice to his troops was, 'Trust in
God . . . and keep your powder dry.'
Pray, knowing the outcome depends
absolutely on the goodness of God;
live, as if it depends absolutely on
your own effort. Our very breath is
in the hand of our heavenly Father,
and yet we have our part to play.
Our part is the whole field of
scientific discovery and artistic
creativity coupled with every part
of human skill, understanding,
discipline, courage, effort and
determination.
'Give us today our daily bread,'
does not mean, 'Sit back and watch
it fall on our plate.' It calls for
all our skill, effort and wisdom and
humble thankful hearts. Especially
humble thankful hearts when, through
circumstances beyond our control, we
are unable to look after ourselves
and are utterly dependent on the
goodwill of those around us.
A true
commonwealth
Do notice, again, that as our Lord
taught us to pray for daily bread he
taught us to pray, 'Give us today
our daily bread.' Not just me and my
but us and our. We are part of a
family, part of a society, part of a
land and it is together we pray for
bread. So, as God gives you bread,
remember your brother, your sister
who is in need. He feeds us
together, he gives us enough.
As the Reformers
considered this they presented a
great challenge. It was that those
of us to whom God gives plenty are
'God's treasurers'. Our heavenly
Father has placed us where we are,
in order to help those in need. The
good Samaritan of the parable with
his donkey, wine and money,
'chanced' to pass that way and find
the man in trouble. He was equipped
and able to help . . . and he did.
As you pray, 'Give us today . . .'
and God graciously answers that
prayer, don't forget, don't pass by,
your neighbour, your fellow disciple
who needs your help.
'Why is it,' the
visiting British Christian was
asked, 'that you Christians in the
West have so much while we
Christians in the developing
countries have so little?' Great
trading empires have always amassed
wealth at the centre by exploiting
those at a distance. We will not
truly begin to pray for those with
too little bread until it touches
our own trading and purchasing
practices, the brands we buy, our
own pile of bread and our own bank
balance. 'Give us today our daily
bread . . .' What a marvellous and
dangerous prayer! A prayer that
threatens our natural complacency,
selfishness and greed.
If God is truly our
Father he is the Father of those who
have plenty and the Father of those
who are in need. It is all too easy
to piously pray, 'O God, feed the
starving people of . . .' Real
prayers of compassion will always be
found to touch our wallet, purse, or
cheque book.
George Muller laid
his orphanage table though he had
nothing to set before his children.
As he prayed, so the Lord stirred
the hearts of those who had plenty
to bring food for the orphanage. Our
Father's economy always has two
sides, sometimes it is our place to
give, and to give generously, and
sometimes to receive and to do so
humbly and gratefully before God.
There is to be a holy
interdependence of love and
compassion between those who are
truly sons and daughters of the
living God.
True prayer is life
changing. Our heavenly Father is
calling out for himself a people who
will truly be a commonwealth of
individuals, societies and nations.
Ungodly self-sufficiency, greed and
selfishness will always militate
against this, and yet the vision of
a true commonwealth lies here, right
at the heart of the Lord's prayer.
'Father, thank you
for your provision of our daily
bread. Thank you for the wealth that
we have, personally and as a
society. We thank you for stable
government and pray for your hand
upon it. Help us to use all that you
entrust to us in a way that pleases
you and awaken us to be fair and
generous in our dealings with those
who have too little.'
References
Free from anxious
care - Matthew 6:25-33
'Bread alone' - Matthew 4:3&4
'Not work, not eat' - 2
Thessalonians 3:10-12
Good Samaritan - Luke 10:33-35
Questions
1 How do you react to the suggestion
that we pray these petitions for
daily bread, forgiveness and safety,
not for our comfort but so that we
are free to live for God; free to be
about our Father's business?
2 Why do we need to pray for our
government as we pray for daily
bread?
3 Both nationally and individually
we like to think of ourselves as
strong and independent 'towers of
strength' but are we? Should we be?
Can we be, when in the tough
situations of life?
4 Do our prayers have a reforming,
lifestyle-changing element about
them? Are we willing, at our own
expense or effort, to be our
heavenly Father's answer to our own
prayers?
5 How can the petition for daily
bread touch and enlighten the
selection of the goods we buy?
6 'Real prayers of compassion will
always be found to touch our wallet,
purse, cheque book and career.' How
easy is this? Is it true? Does it
happen?
7 The vision of a true commonwealth
is right here in the Lord's Prayer,
what stops it happening?
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