In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus showed us showed us how to ask God to provide for our physical and spiritual needs. This devotional reading looks at how we are to continuously ask God to provide for our needs.
Nuggets
- We may be asking for what we want, but we know that God supplies all things.
- God supplies for our physical and spiritual needs.
- While God has plans for our future, He wants us to rely on Him for the day.
The first part of the Lord’s Prayer talks about God and Who He is. We should focus on God and what He wants first, right?
Then we get to the part where we get to ask what we want.
But we’re good there, aren’t we? Especially when we ask for today. But are we?
Let's Put It into Context
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Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Commit to Grow Our Habits study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
“Give us this day our daily bread” (Mt. 6: 11 ESV)
Give Us
“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4: 19 ESV)
We may be asking for what we want, but we know that God supplies all things.
God gives us what we need. He tells us this in His Word. He delights in providing for us.
- “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (Jas. 1: 17 ESV).
- “John answered, ‘A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven’” (Jn. 3: 27 ESV).
We are very good at asking for things we need in this life. Don’t get me wrong. God wants us to do that.
Manton tells us all about how we do this and why. We just have to do it lawfully.
The physical things we are asking for may be needed for us to serve God. For instance, it may take money for us to do what God has called us to do. We can ask for that.
If we don’t ask God to provide for our physical needs, Satan can use those to tempt us. Think about how much we focus on God when we are going bankrupt or losing our jobs.
If we aren’t careful, we can take our eyes off God then.
Asking lawfully means that we don’t put more emphasis on physical things than spiritual things. It also means we have to follow God’s plan for our lives, not our own.
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Why would God have us ask for things when He has promised to supply all our needs?
God doesn’t want us to feel entitled to His promises. Yes, He is going to give them to us – when we are His children.
Glossary
We have to submit our lives to God in order to access His choicest blessings. He wants us to acknowledge that we are dependent on Him to supply our needs.
Something that Barrow said jiggled my mind. He talked about “… whereby we become capable of receiving and enjoying other good things.”
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Isn’t that one of the benefits of prayer? We stop looking only at what we want. We become open to seeking God’s Will and find we enjoy more the lives He wants us to live.
In other words, we take the focus off gumball prayers and focus on godly provision – even if the provision is different than we expect or want.
Our shifted focus shows God that we are depending on Him. We aren’t just looking for Him to blindly give us what we want.
We are trusting God’s plan for us.
It is our duty to rely on God. “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecc. 12: 13-14 ESV).
We are told to rely on God, not ourselves. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Prov. 3: 5 ESV).
Chaplin had an interesting taking. He said that we are asking for the “… ability and opportunity to obtain our daily bread.”
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I can see that. All we are, know, and can do is because God has made us that way.
No, God doesn’t need us for any reason. He unselfishly wants to give us what we cannot give ourselves. We can only rely on His gifts.
God provides for us when we seek Him. He is looking for our faith to rely on Him.
Our Daily Bread
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn. 6: 51 ESV)
God supplies for our physical and spiritual needs.
Okay, we are going to take this out of order. If you have read prior devotions, you know I generally start at the beginning of the verse and walk through it.
I just think we need to know what we are talking about before we go on to quantify it. So, hold the thought of relying on Him.
Yes, God provides all our physical needs. But we aren’t just talking about throwing some yeast and flour into some other ingredients, slapping it in the oven, and calling it bread. This isn’t a literal translation.
Bread is a fairly basic necessity. But what we are talking about here is all our needs.
Our dependence on God proving our needs is a must.
We were just talking about our desires. God doesn’t want us to desire sinful things.
God is more interested in the spiritual than the physical. Edward said it this way. He wrote, “That even the wants of our bodies are to be subordinated to the purposes of religion.”
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God wants us to focus on the eternal. That is where we get our joy.
When we do that, the physical falls into place. (No, this isn’t a prosperity gospel.) Our priorities are aligned with His.
We know Jesus is the Bread of Life.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We can only find salvation through Jesus. “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NIV).
Only God can give us this Bread. We only come to salvation when He calls us.
No, that doesn’t mean God doesn’t call everyone. It means He calls us when the time is right.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Mangey took this a step further. He reminded us that we need to pray in God’s Will. We shouldn’t be praying for something that God doesn’t want us to have or do.
We may have it as a goal to become a missionary to some specific country. That may not be God’s plan for us.
Oh, God might call us to be a missionary, but not to that specific country. But then again, He may have our mission field be where we are – even in our current job.
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This encompasses so many Christian elements. We have to be dependent. We have to submit. We have to have the correct priorities. We have to desire spiritual things.
Think of it this way. We have to depend on God to provide our physical needs to support life of the body. But life is greater than just physical life. It is spiritual life. We have to focus on more than this physical life, because we are going to have an eternal life somewhere.
We want that eternal life to be in the right place – Heaven, not hell.
Focusing on our eternal life brings us contentment. We aren’t desiring what we shouldn’t have. We aren’t even asking for what we wish we had.
We are asking for what we need.
It also helps us resist the temptation to sin. We aren’t coveting what someone else has, so we don’t lie and steal.
It also fosters moderation. That helps us to be sober. Being sober is a character trait distinguished by self-control, genuineness, and sound moral judgment.
Glossary
Mangey also said doing that brings us independence. It frees us from the dependence associated with sinful desires.
We are free of the disease of sin because we trust God to provide for our needs. We rely on His promises.
This Day
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Mt. 6: 34 ESV)
While God has plans for our future, He wants us to rely on Him for the day.
Back to relying on God.
In what things do we need to rely on God? We have to rely on God’s provision over a period of time rather than right now.
But then again, we have to rely on God daily.
Does that seem contradictory? I don’t think so.
God wants us to know He has a plan for us (Jer. 29: 11); therefore, we should have similar plans. He doesn’t want things left to chance.
However, God also knows that our plans change. “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps” (Prov. 16: 9 NLT).
Think of it this way. Sanctification is a process. Sanctification is the transformational process of the mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Our goal is sanctification at the end of the process, but we have to go through every day to get there. Each day should be a step leading to that end.
Because of that, we need to make sure we communicate with God every day. This is how we develop our dependence on God.
That daily contact should alleviate our anxiety. It goes back to being moderate and sober.
We say that being sober is being even keeled. We can be that because our focus is on God, not on the waves around us.
Making the Connections #1
Mangey said something interesting. He wrote, “God allows us to ask nothing of Him, but what we may with purity desire, and with innocence enjoy.”
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Elaine-speak. We can only come into God’s presence to ask of Him when we are submitting ourselves to His Will. Non-believers cannot ask of Him if they do not believe in Jesus and have accepted Him as their Savior.
We have to ask in God’s Will. We can ask for physical things to support our spiritual growth and ministry.
But I can’t ask for a million dollars just to be a millionaire.
We need to enjoy what God gives us. Enjoyment means we are grateful and use what He has given us to glorify Him.
Making the Connections #2
Stanford reminded us of a big word in the verse – our. We can’t make the salvation decision for someone else. We can’t pray them into Heaven without them making the decision to submit to God.
Yes, we are to pray for the salvation of others. We shouldn’t think that they are predestined to be saved, so we don’t have to witness to them or pray for them.
God knows the decision they will make, but they have the free will to make it. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
We shouldn’t abdicate our jobs – pray and tell.
The flip side of that is the Bread is suitable for us. We need the Bread of Life in order to live.
Making the Connections #3
Blyth also expanded what bread we are discussing here.
- “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness” (II Cor. 9: 10 ESV).
- “But he answered, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”’” (Mt. 4: 4 ESV).
- “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst’” (Jn. 6: 35 ESV).
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We can’t limit our view of bread to yeast and flour. We can’t even limit it to physical needs.
God may use things we are familiar with in analogies, but we have to get the analogy.
Making the Connections #4
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn. 10: 10 ESV)
I see you jumping up and down over there. You don’t like being told you have to exercise moderation. You want what you want.
Evans reminds that that there is no moderation in receiving the Bread itself. God’s gift of salvation is overflowing.
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What did David say in Psalms 23: 1? I shall not want.
Ooo, baby. David switched it from need to want. All our desires will be satisfied.
But that is because we are desiring God’s Will. We can want more of His goodness because that is what He promises us.
How Do We Apply This?
- Rely on God for our physical and spiritual needs.
- Do what God calls us to do to gain the bread.
- Don’t become anxious as we know God will supply our needs.
- Use the bread God gives us to promote His glory.
- Work to mortify our sin of covetousness.
- Align our desires with God’s.
- Don’t share the worldview.
- Pray daily.
- Learn to ask for God’s overflow of blessings.
- Ask for our daily bread when we need it.
- Don’t hoard God’s provision.
- Don’t be anxious for God’s provision for the future.
- Don’t be selfish.
- Learn humility through depending on God daily.
- Increase our confidence and gratitude daily.
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Father God. You provide so much for us. You give us all we need. When what we want is in Your Will, You give that to us, too. Most importantly, You give us the Bread of Life. Thank You. Help us to pray for our daily portion so that we may navigate the Sanctification Road to become like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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