Praying for Daily Bread

“Praying for Daily Bread”
 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church –Sunday, Feb 12, 2017
Text: Matthew 6:11 // Series: Pray Like This

One of the challenges I have when it comes to prayer - and maybe you share it - is the question of what to pray for or what to pray about.  Have you paused to think about this question? 

• How do you know what’s “legitimate” to pray for or about and what isn’t?

What makes it onto your radar to bring up in conversation with God?  What about world events – how do you even start!?  Do you pray you’ll win the lottery?  Should you pray that you kid gets into the amazing teacher’s class next year?  Do I pray my favorite political party will get elected?  Should I pray about the weather - like I know happened in our house this week (Oh Lord, grant us yet another snow day!)  Is it a legitimate use of prayer to ask God for a parking space out in front of my house because my neighbours up the street shoveled all the snow off the sidewalk onto the road and now no one can park there whereas I shovelled snow the way Jesus intended – onto your lawn so that you can still park in front of your house!  When it comes to prayer, what should make the list?  How big or how urgent does a concern need to be before I bring it up with Jesus?    

We’ve been in a teaching series here at Jericho called “Pray Like This” where we are going through what is perhaps the most famous prayer in history – line by line.  This is part of a 2 year goal we have as elders and staff to help all of us – from those who are here exploring faith to those who have walked the journey for a long time – to really grow in our capacity and intentionality around prayer.  When he was walking this earth, Jesus’ followers came to Him and asked him to teach them how to pray, he responded and said “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.”

Remember that this is given to us not as a mantra, but as a model for how to pray and also what to pray about.  So we should be paying attention to the Overall Flow or structure of The Lord’s Prayer because it can and should guide how you and I pray.  The prayer begins with  

• Praising God for Who He is
  • He is Father – remind ourselves that God loves to listen to his kids
  • He is Holy – reminded that He is all powerful and this is not a cavalier exercise to come into the presence of the Creator and sustainer of all things.

The prayer moves from praising God into

• Placing myself under God’s Kingdom

May your Kingdom come soon…  So in prayer we reminded ourselves that we make space to ask and to listen so that we

• Knowing what is on the heart of the King

And then we reminded ourselves that prayer is not just about contemplation but also about action.  That when we pray and invite God’s will to be done, that we are privileged to partner with Him so that we

• Being a conduit of Kingdom power & love

We could stop right there and be done.  What incredible richness already in our prayer lives!  I feel that for me, I’ll still working through remembering to lift up my eyes in faith and to pray bigger more expansive prayers like the Pray Like This prayer models for us!  Prayers of jubilant worship and Divine adoration.  

But one the things I love deeply about Jesus’ Master Class on prayer is that He focuses not only on deepening and developing our relationship with Him but also that He is intimately concerned with the stuff of real life and He invites us to bring this to Him in prayer. We move into a part now in the prayer where we are   

Asking for Provision

These are the prayers that you and I probably usually think of when we think of what and how to pray.  “God, I need this or I need that.”  That is where Matthew 6:11 is perhaps one of the most intriguing parts of the Pray Like This prayer.  Jesus instructs us to pray and ask God for daily bread [photo].  Give us today our daily bread.  Or in the New Living, give us today the food we need.  

I love how basic, how granular how practical this is.  You see, in the ancient world, bread was really the primary food for people.  So whenever bread is mentioned in the Bible, it is significant because it represents all that is needed to sustain life.  It is basic, yes, but that’s the point.  God cares about not just our spiritual lives but about every aspect: right down Maslow’s’ hierarchy of needs right down to the very base: food, water, warmth, rest.  Daily bread represents all that is needed to sustain our day-to-day lives. So we’re not only invited to pray big prayers or pray about “big” things but we are also invited to come to God with what might seem to you and I like trivialities. 

I love the way that one of my favorite authors on the spiritual life Richard J. Foster puts this in his book entitled Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home

“Try to imagine what our prayer experience would be like if He had forbidden us to ask for the little things. What if the only things we were allowed to talk about were the weighty matters, the important things, the profound issues?   We would be orphaned in the cosmos, cold and terribly alone. But the opposite is true: He welcomes us with our 1,001 trifles, for they are each important to Him.”

Give Us This Day our daily bread.  So when we pray for  

Praying for Daily Bread

• Jesus is saying “ask God to provide what you need to sustain you by meeting the needs you have for today”

I’m challenged in this by how often I just plow into my days without thinking about what I need for that day.  And if I don’t know what I need, I certainly don’t think about asking God to meet those needs!  Another challenge that I see is that some of you are much better at asking God to meet the needs of other people than you are at praying and inviting Him into that place of sustaining you for the needs you have today.    

This is not however, a new prayer problem or a challenge that is unique.  In fact, there’s a powerful story in the Old Testament about bread and God’s provision it’s found in Exodus 16.  At this point in the Big God story, the People of God have left Egypt they are now wandering in the wilderness.  They begin to wonder: um, we’ve over a million people, how are we going to make it for 40 years in the dessert with no Costco?  This is not looking good.  So they begin to do what you and I would have done: complain to leadership.  Moses brings this to God and God provides for their daily bread needs in the most creative and unique way.  The next morning, when they got up, there was a layer of dew all over the camp. When the layer of dew had lifted, there on the wilderness ground was a fine flaky something, fine as frost on the ground. The Israelites took one look and said to one another, man-hu (which means “What is it?”). They had no idea what it was.

Manna: Bread from Heaven

I’m reading from Exodus 16:16 in the Message Translation So Moses told them, “It’s the bread God has given you to eat. And these are God’s instructions: ‘Gather enough for each person, about two quarts per person; gather enough for everyone in your tent.’” 17-18 The People of Israel went to work and started gathering, some more, some less, but when they measured out what they had gathered, those who gathered more had no extra and those who gathered less weren’t short—each person had gathered as much as was needed. 19 Moses said to them, “Don’t leave any of it until morning.” 20 But they didn’t listen to Moses. A few of the men kept back some of it until morning. It got wormy and smelled bad. And Moses lost his temper with them. 21-22

They gathered it every morning, each person according to need. Then the sun heated up and it melted. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, about four quarts per person. Then the leaders of the company came to Moses and reported. 23-24 Moses said, “This is what God was talking about: Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to God. Whatever you plan to bake, bake today; and whatever you plan to boil, boil today. Then set aside the leftovers until morning.” They set aside what was left until morning, as Moses had commanded. It didn’t smell bad and there were no worms in it. 25-26 Moses said, “Now eat it; this is the day, a Sabbath for God. You won’t find any of it on the ground today. Gather it every day for six days, but the seventh day is Sabbath; there won’t be any of it on the ground.” 27

On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather anyway but they didn’t find anything. 28-29 God said to Moses, “How long are you going to disobey my commands and not follow my instructions? Don’t you see that God has given you the Sabbath? So on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. So, each of you, stay home. Don’t leave home on the seventh day.” 30 So the people quit working on the seventh day. 31 The Israelites named it manna (What is it?). It looked like coriander seed, whitish. And it tasted like a cracker with honey. 

So for the 40 years that they sojourned in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan, God literally fed His people with bread from heaven. 

• Appeared each morning
• Enough for each person
• Didn’t keep overnight
• Except on the 6^th day when they gathered double so they could enjoy a day of rest
• Happened for 40 years

You might say “well, interesting history lesson, Brad.  What in the world does manna have to do with me?  Last time I checked, little white wafers were not materializing with the dew on the ground outside of my residence 6 days a week. 

No, but the WHY God sent them manna is important to catch because it applies to each and every one of us.  Here’s the way Moses explains what God was doing by providing them daily bread:  In Deuteronomy 6:16 Moses says “God

“He fed you with manna in the wilderness… He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. 17 He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ 18 Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful.”  Deuteronomy 6:16-18

In other words, God provided their daily bread needs in order to remind them that HE is the one who will always provide daily needs.  For them and for you and I. And Psalm 104 goes even further and reminds us that God does this even for the animals!  Matthew 5:45 reminds us that God in His grace, God provides the needs of both the just and the unjust.  He feeds those who acknowledge that it is Him and those who do not.  Ray Steadman in his classic book on prayer reminds us somewhat poetically that when it comes to daily bread, you may put the ingredients together a and pop the loaf in the oven but “back of the loaf is the snowy flour / And back of the flour, the mill / and back of the mill, is the field of wheat / The rain, and the Father’s Will”.  In other words, everything that we have, even daily bread, can be traced back to the gracious hand of a loving father.  Everything we have goes back to the bread that God provides us.  And so when we bow and heads and pray “Give us today the food that we need” we acknowledge God as our source & provider with humble gratitude in our hearts.  

And so what might seem as the most simple line in the whole pray like this prayer actually acts as a protection against falling into one or both of Two Dangerous Ditches [photo of car].     

 Ditch #1 – or mistake number one, is  

1. The Ditch of Self-Sufficiency

You see, it is so easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking “you know what, I’m doing pretty good at this providing for my needs thing.  I’ve got a decent job, I’ve starting saving up for the future, I’m upwardly mobile with regards to my career.  My kids aren’t sociopaths so I think I have this parenting thing down.  In terms of needs, we have more than just bread on our table, sometimes we eat steak!  And so we fall into the lie of thinking that WE have done this.  That we have been responsible stewards and that we have orchestrated things just so and we’re pretty good at it.  Remember the story of manna and why God gave it to them in that way: “so that they would never say, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful.”  When you think you are the one who has done it all, who has worked hard and pride comes to take root in your heart, watch out!  One of the unique pitfalls of suburban life is the lie of self-sufficiency. And so praying for daily bread becomes a       

• This is a prayer of radical dependence
• Dependence is predicated on humility

When this prayer is on your lips, you are saying “God, I cannot do this on my own.  I need you!”  I need your provision.  Not only for my physical needs, but my emotional needs.  I depend on you for breath, for life, for spiritual guidance, for hope for the future, for grace for today.  Lord, I need you!  Today.  Provide my needs today.  This is why the prayer is for daily bread not weekly intake. 

1. L Moody once said “A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months or take sufficient air into his lungs at once time to sustain life for a week. We must draw upon Gods boundless store of grace from day to day as we need it”

How good are you at expressing needs? 

Some of you need to get over your pride and come for prayer response.  Some of you need to let your guard down and let other people into your life.  Some of you need to begin to repent of a spirit of self-reliance and self-sufficiency and one of the ways you can do this is through thanksgiving.  Developing a habit of slowing down and noticing the little and big things in your life and saying “God, I am grateful that You have provided this for me or for us”.  Remembering and celebrating helps to yank us up out of the ditch of self-sufficiency.  What are you grateful for today?  Tell God when we move into our time of worship & response.  What are you needs you are facing?  Have the humility to tell other people and let them bear your burdens with you in prayer and practical ways. 

So that’s ditch #1.  On the other side of road is another ditch that sometimes we can fall into and that is the

2. The Ditch of a Poverty Mentality

This is why we don’t start our prayers with “God, gimme this and gimme that”  When Jesus teaches us how to approach the Father, He starts us in Matthew 6:8 by saying “Your Father knows exactly what you need before you ask him!” and so pray like this… God, Abba, Papa, we approach you as the One who knows how to give Good gifts to your children.  AND we also approach you as the One who is the ruler and sustainer and provider for every living thing.  THEN we begin to press in for our daily bread needs. 

But here’s how you know you’ve skidded off the road and into the ditch of a poverty mentality… You don’t believe that God can meet your needs.  You begin to doubt that He really cares for you or wants to provide for you or for others. 

• When you believe you have only enough for one day, you can become stingy
• This is an affront to God’s generous provision

Think back to the manna: The text specifically notes that “some more, some less, but when they measured out what they had gathered, those who gathered more had no extra and those who gathered less weren’t short—each person had gathered as much as was needed”  And when they began to hoard the manna because there we unsure if God had the ability to provide for their needs, it became rotten and stinky.  Friend, don’t let a poverty mentality settle into your heart where you believe that God doesn’t’ have enough goodness to go around. Oh sure, He’s good to some people, but not to you.  Don’t let it settle into your finances: you’ll begin to hold back when God is telling you to be radically generous.  I love how Paul challenges us to consider the generosity of God in Philippians 4:19 “this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”  If the antidote to the ditch of self-sufficiency is thanksgiving, the antidote this ditch is asking God to give you a spirit of generosity.  God is going to provide your needs, friends, because He has the riches of the storehouses of heaven to do so.  This isn’t some kind of wonky prosperity gospel.  This is a faith-fueled confidence that God knows your needs.  He may not fulfill all of your wants.  It’s daily bread that is promised not daily rib eyes!  But do NOT fall into the trap of believing that God will short you. 

Romans 8:32 points out the one place where the depth and the breadth and the generosity of God finds its most wondrous expression.  In the giving of Himself. 

In the NIV, it reads “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”  What will He graciously give us?  Some things?  A few things?  No!  ALL THINGS!  So do not believe that lie that Your Heavenly father is a poor provider.  He has given you all things!

The team is coming and we’re going to move into a time of worship and communion.  One of the elements that Jesus specifically chose for us to continue to use as his followers to remember and celebrate was bread.  That’s no accident.  In fact, in John 6, Jesus says to His followers “I AM the bread of life”.  In doing this, He is reiterating “I am your sustainer”.  I AM your provider.  I AM and I have all that you need.  I AM your daily bread.   Let’s pray together.