Matt 6:11

Matthew 6:11

"Give us today our daily bread."

We have seen in vv. 9 and 10 that our prayer first of all should be in worship and adoration of God with a desire to bring glory and honor to Him.

Now in v. 11 we come to the part of the prayer that we sometimes call "petition" or asking for something. Three specific areas are brought before God, and they really cover every area of our lives: body, soul, and spirit.

"Give us today our daily bread" of course deals with our physical and material needs. It includes the necessities of our lives as well as the gracious gifts God might choose to give us above and beyond the necessities. It's interesting that this particular petition comes first, and in fact, these are the things we usually think of when we think of prayer. Most prayer lists are filled with requests for healing, for jobs, for finances, etc. And this is perfectly fine, but we must remember that this request falls directly between worshiping the Father and praying for our spiritual needs. Any parent is grieved if a child only comes to him when he wants something! We first of all want a relationship with our children. So it is with our heavenly Father.

Another thought about this request is that it reminds us of God's goodness and generosity. Most of us are blessed far beyond the mere necessities of life!

It also reminds us that we are utterly dependent on God. He causes the sun the shine and rain to fall and the crops to grow and the harvesters to do their jobs and so forth to provide our food. He has provided for our health, physical strength, and even mental capacity to work to provide funds for our needs. He keeps the sun in its place and the earth in its orbit. He has even (so far) kept our economy from collapsing sending us all into chaos! If He were to take His hand off any of these or many other things, we would indeed suffer. In reality, we can't live without Him!

Psalm 83:18 "Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord--that you alone are the Most High over all the earth."