Relevant Bible Verses:
1) Matt 6:11 Give us today our daily bread.
2) Matt 6:31-33 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (KJV)
3) Phil 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NIV)
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To be fully constituted with God, we need to continue to partake Christ as our daily bread.
In God’s salvation, He desires to work Himself into us to be everything to us. God intends to be our everything so that we can be built up as His dwelling place on earth. God has a purpose in His salvation, there is no need for us to beg Him to have mercy upon us and to rescue us. All the hard works have already been completed by Christ on the cross of Calvary. In Exodus, we see that the children of Israel were not to be anything or to do anything. Whenever they did something, the Lord was offended, even when they did something good. The Lord simply wanted the people to be in His hand so He could work Himself into them.
Matthew 6:11 shows us that we have to look to God and pray to Him every day. The Lord teaches us to pray, "Give us today our daily bread". We do not pray weekly, but daily. Just as we cannot eat for the rest of the week or month, likewise we cannot pray for weekly bread or monthly bread; we have to pray for bread daily. How much trust in God is required here! The Lord is not ignorant of our daily needs; He does not tell us to forget about praying for these needs. Rather, He tells us to pray daily. It was the same reason why the manna was provided for the Israelites in the wilderness from the heavens on daily basis. Actually, the Father already knows the things that we need. The Lord wants us to ask God for our bread day by day because He wants us to learn to look to the Father day by day; He wants us to exercise our faith day by day. The Lord wants us to depend upon Him in all things.
God is working in us and for us, and He knows all our needs. If we know the Lord and His ways, we shall not complain or murmur whenever we have a need. Instead, we shall say, “Praise the Lord! He knows our every need. He knows our need, and He will send the supply at the right time. He knows what is best for us. Let us accept with a grateful heart whatever He gives us and not be anxious in anything.
We often extend our worries too much into the future, and we stretch our prayer too much into the future. Brothers and sisters do not worry about tomorrow; sufficient for the day is its own evil (Matt 6:34).
Praise the Lord! Christ is our Redeemer.
2 comments:
The so-called "Lord's Prayer" in Matthew shows us that when we pray, we should put God's name, kingdom, and will first. We should also pray for our own needs, but these are secondary. Verse 33 charges us to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you".
Most of the time, we have this the other way round. We pray mostly for our needs first before coming to God's will. In our natural self, everyone of us is riddled with anxiety.
"In ancient times, the children of Israel had to labor by tilling the ground, sowing the seed, watering, and harvesting. This was their duty. But whether or not they received the harvest depended upon God. Their responsibility was to labor without having any anxiety. If they were anxious, that would have been an offense to God. There was no need for them to be anxious. They simply had to do whatever God asked them to do. For example, according to Deuteronomy, God required them to set aside one tenth for Himself, another tenth for the Levites, and still another tenth for a different purpose. They were not permitted to keep all the produce for their enjoyment. They were not to have any anxiety. If they had no anxiety, they could be generous, willing to give to others and put their material things into the hand of the Lord." (Life-Study of Matthew Msg 22)
So today most of us have a duty to work, to make a living, or to study/get a degree etc. However, we shouldn't be anxious about this - God definitely cares about us enough to provide for our daily needs. He is our Manna, our daily bread.
I am glad you can contribute to strengthen my articles, Bro. dc.
Again, you have said it well...
Let the words that flow out of our mouth be acceptable in God's sight!.
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