We're in Matthew chapter 6. We're continuing in our study of the Lord's Prayer. The fourth petition this evening, a couple more weeks, and then, God willing, we'll return to our studies in the Old Testament. Specifically, we'll be in the book of Ruth.
After Ruth, we'll continue on in canonical order. We'll move on into 1 Samuel after Ruth. So tonight, the fourth petition. with reference to the Lord's Prayer, specifically give us this day our daily bread. But I'll begin reading in chapter 6 at verse 1, just to remind us of the context.
Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place.
And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him. In this manner, therefore, pray.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your father who is in the secret place.
And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Amen.
Introduction
So as we have seen in the last several weeks in our study here, the first three petitions are God-centered in nature. We pray first for the glory of God's name, secondly for the coming of God's kingdom, and thirdly for the execution of God's will. So just like the Decalogue shows a priority that God comes first, So does the Lord's Prayer. It's those petitions that are concerned with His name, His kingdom, and His will that we ought to go first and foremost to the throne of grace with.
But then we do find there are man-word petitions. We see, as we'll see tonight, first, the petition for provision, secondly, the petition for forgiveness, and thirdly, a petition for protection. So those are the six petitions of the Lord's Prayer. God's name, kingdom will, our provision, forgiveness, and protection from on high.
Just to remind ourselves, Calvin's statement concerning this prayer. He says, Christ embraces, therefore, in six petitions what we are at liberty to ask from God. Nothing is more advantageous to us than such instruction. Though this is the most important exercise of piety, yet in forming our prayers and regulating our wishes, all our senses fail us.
No man will pray a rite unless his lips and heart shall be directed by the Heavenly Master." I think that's a great way to approach this particular prayer. Again, they are petitions. These are things we are supposed to ask for with reference to God and our place underneath Him. excuse me, we petition God that his name be hallowed by us, by our families, by our churches. We are conscious of the reality that we don't honor his name as we ought, so we are praying for the grace that we may honor and glorify his name.
We petition God that his kingdom come, the kingdom of grace, that in the preaching of the gospel the word of God would go forth and sinners would be transformed transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. As well, we petition God for the coming of the kingdom in glory. We long for that day when Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven, coming with the holy angels in the glory of His Father. As well, we petition God that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We are asking that God grant us grace that we may obey what he calls us to do. The revealed will, those things that he has given us by precept, we ask God to help us to obey those things. We ask God to help our children, our families, our churches. We ask God that society as a whole would do his will as it is, do it on earth as it is in heaven.
The same is true for these man-word petitions. We are praying specifically for bread. We are praying specifically for forgiveness. And we are praying specifically for protection.
So let's look at this fourth petition. Give us this day, our daily bread, under three considerations. First, the meaning of the petition. Secondly, the theological importance of the petition.
And thirdly, some particulars involved in the petition. Remember, we don't just recite. The prayer, Jesus condemns that sort of an approach to prayer. Remember, he tells us we're not to pray like the heathen.
Notice in verse 7, he says, and when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. It would make no sense that just a few verses later the Lord Jesus wants us to employ a prayer and use it with vain repetition. He doesn't want us simply to take this prayer as if it was some sort of a magic spell or some sort of an incantation that we just recite over and over again. in an attempt to manipulate God so that he'll do what we want. The idea is that we look at these petitions, we roll them around in our minds and our hearts, and we seek to find out how they apply, and we use them as main headings with reference to prayer.
So those are the three things that we're going to look at, but I want to read the Westminster Larger Catechism, 193. It says, what do we pray for in the fourth petition? in the fourth petition, which is, give us this day our daily bread, acknowledging that in Adam, and by our own sin, we have forfeited our right to all the outward blessings of this life, and deserve to be wholly deprived of them by God. It's an interesting observation I don't think we're always mindful of. The reality is, is that when we sin against the holy God, We don't deserve good things.
We don't deserve food and shelter and clothing and happiness and joy and blessing. We deserve God's wrath and curse both in this life and that which is to come. So the divine says that we acknowledge that we have forfeited our right to all the outward blessings of this life, deserve to be wholly deprived of them by God, and to have them cursed to us in the use of them, and that neither they of themselves are able to sustain us, nor we to merit, or by our own industry to procure them. but prone to desire, get, and use them unlawfully. We pray for ourselves and others that both they and we, waiting upon the providence of God from day to day in the use of lawful means, may of His free gift, and as to His fatherly wisdom shall seem best, enjoy a competent portion of them, and have the same continued and blessed unto us in our holy and comfortable use of them. and contentment in them, and be kept from all things that are contrary to our temporal support and comfort." Again, I think if you go through the larger catechism on the Lord's Prayer and on the Ten Commandments, there's some really excellent stuff in terms of their commentary on these passages of Scripture.
The Meaning of the Petition
First of all, the meaning of the petition. What it does not mean. Pastor Martin, first of all, what it doesn't mean. Secondly, what it does mean.
I think that's an accurate way to approach text. What it does not mean.
What the Petition Does Not Mean
First, it does not mean we are to forgo labor. We must work hard because we pray this prayer, give us this day our daily bread. The idea is not that we lay on our couch and we hold out our hands, or we sit at our dinner table with a napkin wrapped around our neck, holding a fork in the one hand and a knife in the other, saying, give us this day our daily bread, with the thought that a chicken on a plate is going to fall right down before us. It is not a means whereby we forego hard work.
D.A. Carson says, the idea of God giving the food in no way diminishes responsibility to work, but presupposes not only that Jesus' disciples live one day at a time, but that all good things, even our ability to work and earn our food, come from God's hand. It is a lesson easily forgotten when wealth multiplies and absolute self-sufficiency is portrayed as a virtue. I suspect that this fourth petition is probably one that may be neglected among Christians in North America.
I mean, if we were living in an impoverished nation where we really didn't know where our next meal was going to come from, it probably would promote in us a more earnest approach to utilize this fourth petition at the throne of grace. But when we have pantries full, and refrigerators full, and freezers in our garage, and Walmart down the road, and Superstore down the road, and Pricemark down the road, and Costco in the next town over, we're not always mindful of this reality that we live in daily dependence upon the living and the true God. But it does not mean that we are to forgo labor. We must work hard.
Secondly, it does not mean we are not to plan and prepare. Again, we don't just sit there with fork and knife in hand, praying this petition, asking God to drop food onto our table. It does not mean that we are not to plan and prepare. Proverbs 30, 24 and 25.
There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise. What is one of those four things? Little tiny creature. And what is the ant known for?
Preparation, hard work. This is what Proverbs say. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer. This is a good thing.
We are to prepare. We are to labor diligently. We are to use the means that God has called us to employ. So this petition does not diminish responsibility.
We'll look at more in a moment at what the petition does mean, but for now it does not mean we are to forego labor. It does not mean we are not to plan and prepare. Thirdly, it does not mean that if we shoot an animal or grow a garden, we eat a day's worth and let the rest spoil. You know, we can be fools in that regard as well.
Well, we have to pray each and every day, give us this day our daily bread. If God sends a moose into our path and we're able to take it out, we don't just take one steak from the moose, eat for that day, and then let the rest of the meat spoil because the next day is a brand new day and I have to evidence my dependence upon God. Listen, God has given you a moose. He has blessed you for several days coming.
You can still pray the next day, give us this day our daily bread. And when you sink your choppers into that moose, you can rejoice that God has answered that prayer for you. So we need to understand that the petition does not remove from us all sensibility and things that should be natural in our understanding. And then fourthly, it does not mean a request for sacramental bread or spiritual bread.
The bread in view is physical. Now certainly we can pray, God give us this day our daily bread in terms of the word of God. We do not forget Deuteronomy. We do not forget Matthew.
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So when we pray, give us this day our daily bread and temporal things, we also can pray, God give us our daily bread in terms of spiritual nourishment, help us to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. The primary emphasis in this fourth petition is that God will feed us, that God will sustain us, that God will help us to continue in our daily lives. So those are some things that the petition does not mean.
What the Petition Does Mean
Secondly, under the meaning of the petition, what it does mean. It is, first of all, a petition for temporal sustenance. Not just bread, but we also need shelter, We need clothing. We will need medical treatment if something befalls us in God's providence.
Ryle says we ask for bread as the simplest of our wants, and in that we include all that our bodies require. So yes, our daily bread, but as well our jobs, or our health, or our strength, or those things that are necessary to keep us alive. We pray for water. We pray for, you know, physical things that keep us connected to the life cycle.
And then secondly, it is a petition for daily needs, and then as Carson says, not for daily greed. It is a petition designed for our daily needs, not for our daily greed. So we are praying, give us this day our daily bread. Not give us this day everybody's daily bread.
Give us this day a billion dollars, because we want the best that money can buy. No, as we've seen in our studies in 1 Timothy chapter 6. When we have food and when we have shelter, with these we shall be content. It doesn't specify what type of food and what type of shelter.
If you're eating enough to maintain proper brain function and body function, and you've got shelter to keep the rain and the elements off of you, The Lord God is blessing you. It may not be the Taj Mahal, it may not be steak and shrimp or whatever it is that you desire, but if God is giving you sustenance to sustain you for the day, then He is answering this petition and is giving us, out of His bounty, those things necessary to sustain us. Remember the Proverbs chapter 30 verses 7 and 8. Two things I request of you.
Deprive me not before I die. Remove falsehood and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me.
Lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steel and profane the name of my God. So the petition is not a means to employ to get riches and wealth. This is not the health, wealth, and prosperity ticket to get everything that you could ever imagine.
Rather, it is an acknowledgment of our daily need and presenting those things before our God that he would supply those things consistent with his plan, his providence, and his kindness.
The Theological Importance of the Petition
So now notice, secondly, the theological importance of the petition. This does three things.
Expression of Dependence on God
First, it is an expression of our dependence upon God. Remember that ultimately that's what prayer is. You know, you've heard the books or you've seen the things, prayer changes things. Prayer doesn't change God.
Prayer changes us. It conforms us more and more to hopefully fall in lockstep with his will. God has an eternal purpose. He has an eternal decree.
He does not change it based on what you say on a given Tuesday or a given Friday. God doesn't say, oh, wow, that's a really good idea. I think I will give you your daily bread in this particular instance. Prayer ultimately is an act of worship, and it is an expression of our dependence upon the living and the true God.
I think sometimes we approach prayer as a means to get stuff from God, and that's not the issue. Prayer is an act of worship and it is an expression of our dependence upon God. And this particular petition does this in several ways. First, it is a reminder of the fall of man.
As the Catechism says in the fourth petition, Acknowledging that in Adam and by our own sin we have forfeited our right to all the outward blessings of this life. It's not a right at this point that God gives us chicken. It's not a right at this point that God gives us MSP. It's not a right at this point that God gives us cars with air conditioning.
It is not a right. It is a blessing, it is an act of mercy, it is an act of kindness from God, and this petition reminds us of our fallen condition under God. Remember in Genesis chapter 3, with reference to the fall, and then God curses the man. He tells him it's going to be difficult for him to get or to reap benefit from the field.
It is going to come by hard work, by sweat, by toil, and by strife and so when we pray this petition we are mindful of the reality that we have forfeited the right to have God feed us with every tree in the garden except for that one particular one that he has specified. You know when God made Adam and he put him in that garden he said you may freely eat from every tree except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day you eat, dying you shall die. And of course Adam eats and dying he shall die.
And in Adam we all die. So we don't have a right to just go about now freely eating anything and everything that God says. Every benefit that comes from on high is an act of God's mercy. So it is an expression of our dependence upon God Specifically, a reminder of the fall of man.
Secondly, an acknowledgment that even our ability to work is a gift from God. You know, work gets a bum rap by man. Work is good. Work is a blessing.
Work is a benefit. The Fourth Commandment enjoins upon man hard work for six days. Yes, it promises a day of rest. There is a gift given by God in the Sabbath command, to be sure, but that statement or that command also enjoins upon it hard physical labor for six days.
And the scripture acknowledges that work itself is a blessing or a gift from God. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 18. and you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers as it is this day." So you're gifted at a particular task, not because you're gifted at a particular task, but because God has gifted you for that particular task. It's not that you've got an ingenuity. Remember those men that constructed the tabernacle in the Old Testament.
It says that the spirit of wisdom came upon them. Boys marveled at this. These artisans, these craftsmen, these men who knew how to construct things, these men who knew how to build things, this was as much a gift of the spirit of God coming upon them as the spirit of God coming upon Moses or errand to speak forth the word of truth. If you have ability, if you can do carpentry, if you are skilled in a particular trade, you have a mind that is capable of functioning beyond the basics on a daily basis, That is a gift from God.
He has given you power to get wealth, and it is a blessing. James 1.17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Psalm 104 indicates this as well. It doesn't necessarily say that labor or work or your job is a gift from God, but I think in the context it really does suggest as much.
Psalm 104 in many respects is a rehearsal of God's creation. God's good creation in this world. And in Psalm 104, verse 19, it says, He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows it's going down.
You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the beasts of the forest creep about. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their food from God. Isn't that beautiful? When that young lion is out there ripping apart a wildebeest, that's God's way of feeding that young lion.
It is a beautiful and blessed thing. Now notice what he goes on to rehearse in verse 22. When the sun rises, they gather together and lie down in their dens. So it's an obvious reality that it is God the Lord who is providing for the lions their prey.
And then in verse 23, man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening. I think the implication is pretty obvious. The way that God provides for the lion is the way that God provides for the man. The man gets up and he goes to his work and he labors until the evening when he comes home and he rejoices in the good things that God has given unto him.
This causes the psalmist to cry, O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions. So when we come to this petition, it is an expression of our dependence upon God.
It reminds us of the fall. It is an acknowledgment that even our ability to work is a gift from God. Thirdly, it is an expression of our faith in the living God. Give us this day our daily bread is an expression of our faith in the living God.
We are telling our children when we pray this petition that we trust God that he's going to provide. We are telling others when we pray this petition that we trust God that he is going to provide for our needs. Even more importantly, we are expressing to God that we believe that he is going to provide for our needs. And again, It may not be for our wants, it may not be for our extravagance, it may not be for those luxury items, but if the Lord God keeps the rain off your head and keeps food in your belly, then He is to be praised, and this expresses our faith in Him.
Calvin says it this way, it is indeed the true proof of our faith when we ask nothing but from God and not only acknowledge him to be the only fountain of blessings but feel that his fatherly kindness extends to the smallest matters so that he does not disdain to take care even of our flesh. We are giving Him everything. We are entrusting to Him the big things. We are entrusting to Him the little things.
We are giving Him absolute charge in this area of sustenance and provision and blessing such that we may live each and every day. And then as well, fourthly, it is a realization that God is the first cause behind these blessings. So when we go to Costco, or when we go to Superstore, or when we go to our backyard and pull a carrot out of the ground, we know ultimately that God is the first cause. When we pray, give us this day our daily bread.
If we lived out in Timbuktu and we got up in the morning, we prayed that prayer, we went out with our 38.6 and we downed a moose, we would say, praise God, he has given us our daily bread. Well, not living in Timbuktu, where we don't go out on the road and shoot a moose, when we drive over to Superstore and buy a gallon of milk, we acknowledge that he has provided. He is the first cause. Whether it be the moose walking across the meadow or the swamp where you can shoot him, or it be the milk in Costco's freezer that is providing your sustenance.
It is an acknowledgment or a realization that God is the first cause behind these blessings. Manton says it this way. However they come to us, God must be owned in the possession, whether they come to us by donation, purchase, labor, or by inheritance. Yet they are originally by God, who by these means bestows them upon us.
So if somebody hands you a loaf of bread, Yes, they're nice, and you ought to thank them. Don't say, well, you know, you're just a means where God gave me this. Thank them. Somebody hands you a chicken, thank them.
But realize it's God who's the first cause that is responsible for putting this food in your body. Hosea 2.8, God says, for she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. All of these benefits that the land yielded, instead of giving glory and honor and praise to God as the first cause, they take these things and present them as sacrifice to Baal. What a wretched expression of a lack of dependence upon our living and true God.
So those are four subsets of an expression of our dependence upon God.
Acknowledgment of God's Sovereignty
As well, this petition is an acknowledgment of God's sovereignty. It is an acknowledgment of God's sovereignty. Psalm 24, verse 1, is a fundamental rule for us in terms of possessions. There's a basic economic principle everybody should know.
It's called Tanstaffel. which means there ain't no such thing as a free lunch unless, of course, you live in Canada or America, but as a basic general economic principle, ten staffles, good thing to keep in your head, especially young people. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. There is no such thing. You have to work in order to get.
But in terms of a biblical, a basic biblical economic principle, notice in Psalm 24 verse 1, a Psalm of David, the earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters." This is basic. This is fundamental. This is axiomatic.
This is something that God's people must keep in their minds. Any possessions that you have, any benefits that you have been given, any wealth or riches that has been bestowed on you is a gift given by the God who owns everything and doles some of it out to you to be a steward over those properties or over those things that he has given. And so in this petition, give us this day our daily bread, we acknowledge God's sovereignty. He made the world and everything in it.
He sustains the world and allots gifts to his creatures. Again in Psalm 104 verses 14 and 15 and 27 and 28. You can turn back there. Psalm 104 verses 14 and 15.
He causes the grass to grow for the cattle and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart. Isn't that beautiful? God supplies our needs. It is God who causes growth.
It is God who sustains man by the fruit of the earth, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart and in Psalm 104 27 and 28 these all wait for you that you may give them their food in due season what you give them they gather in when you open your hand They are filled with good. So this petition is an acknowledgment of God's sovereignty. Psalm 136 and verse 25, same idea at work. Psalm 136 and verse 25, who gives food to all flesh for his mercy endures forever.
So when you eat, whether it be breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you can acknowledge the reality that God in his sovereignty and in his grace has given you these good things. Manton again says, in eminent deliverances of the church, we will acknowledge mercy. Yea, but we should do it in every bit of meat we eat. It's a tough bit of meat we eat for the same reason is rendered all along.
So in the eminent deliverances of the church, certainly we cry out and acknowledge God's sovereignty in that dispensation of mercy. But as Manton suggests, we should do it in every bit of meat that we eat for the same reason is rendered all along. in Psalm 136, who gives food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever. Remember, that's the refrain of that psalm, and it's the refrain that goes along with the fact that God destroyed Pharaoh and his armies for His mercy. endures forever. God sustained Israel.
God brought them out of Egypt. All these things, these powerful and eminent deliverances from the church, and they acknowledge His mercy endures forever. And here in verse 25, He gives food to all flesh. Same reason is given for His mercy endures forever.
Ecclesiastes 2.24, nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw was from the hand of God. Ecclesiastes 3.13, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God.
And then 1 Timothy 4.3, in a condemnation of apostates and heretics, he says, Paul says, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods, which foods God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth." So it is an acknowledgment of God's sovereignty.
Hope-Filled Confidence in God's Care
As well, it is a hope-filled confidence in his paternal care. Give us this day our daily bread. It is an acknowledgment of His sovereignty and expression of our dependence upon God, but as well it's a hope-filled confidence in His paternal care. How do we begin the prayer?
Our Father who art in heaven. So we are coming to our Father and we are asking our Father to provide daily sustenance for us in our lives. Psalm 84, verse 11, for the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory.
No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Hebrews 13, 5 and 6, let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Now that text is a text that we employ in the spiritual realm, and it certainly has application in the spiritual realm. When God saves us from our sins, he will never leave us and he will never forsake us. But in the context, he's dealing with temporal provision. He's dealing with those things that we need for daily sustenance.
There is a caution against covetousness. Do not covet. That's a bad thing. Four, it says, do not covet, but be content with such things as you have.
What's the reason given? For he himself has said, I will never leave you. nor forsake you." So do not covet, be content, and the reason is God has promised not to leave you nor forsake you. Doesn't Jesus do the same thing in Matthew chapter 6? If we continued on in this trajectory, we continued reading in this chapter, what does Jesus do with reference to his disciples?
I want you to fret, I want you to worry, I want you to be filled with carnal anxiety, I want you to be, you know, stressed out to the max, over what you're going to eat and what you're going to wear. No! He does just the opposite. He says, trust in your Heavenly Father.
Look at the lilies of the field. They don't toil, they don't spin, but they are dressed beautifully. God clothes them in a beautiful way. Look at the birds of the air.
They don't get up at nine, punch a time clock, go to bird work and come home at ten or five o'clock and eat bird dinner and kiss bird wives and go back to bed and get up, they don't do that. But God provides for that. And the whole idea is don't fret, don't be anxious, don't be stressed out, but rather have a hope-filled trust in God's paternal care. So those are some things with reference to the theology of the petition.
Particulars of the Petition
And then finally, some particulars. How do we employ this? Obviously, for ourselves, give us this day our daily bread. It's good for us to pray.
God, I pray that you'll give me food today, that you'll keep me from a major accident or calamity or, you know, I don't want to be fired. I want to be able to keep my job and do those things which are pleasing in your sight, food, clothing, shelter, physical health, wisdom to plan properly so that we are not fools. I mean, the Proverbs And Ecclesiastes are filled with that impetus or that reality that we need to be wise with the resources that God gives us.
Interceding for Brothers in Need
With reference to brethren, if a brother comes or a brother says, I'm having a tough time, I'm having a difficult situation in my life, Lord, give him this day his daily bread. provide health and strength to these brethren that we pray for on a regular basis. I mean, for any of us who have gotten ill for more than a day, I hope that we'll kind of enter into what people who struggle with ongoing illnesses feel and are affected by. I mean, it's certainly easy for us to forget about people when we don't know anything in terms of what they're going through. But when we understand something of what they're going through, we ought to pray.
We ought not to just go, oh, there's the people that we pray for on a regular basis. We ought to really take it to heart and consider their particular plight and their need and pray this petition. God, give them this day their daily bread. Give them physical strength.
Give them health. Give them the ability to be able to persevere in the midst of these trials and difficulties.
Interceding for the Persecuted Church
And then as well for those in need, I think by extension we ought to pray, give us this day our daily bread for brothers and sisters in Iraq that are being dispossessed from their homes, throughout the Middle East, wherever Islam seems to wield a heavy hand, we ought to be praying for brothers and sisters. that are losing their homes, losing their businesses, seeing their churches burned down, seeing their houses burned down, seeing friends killed and murdered and destroyed. Certainly, as we pray this petition, give us this day our daily bread, we ought not to neglect the plight and the reality of so many others that do not have daily bread. Lord God, instead of me having a chicken, perhaps I'll be content today with some oatmeal. If you take some of that and give it to brethren elsewhere, we ought to take to heart the cause of those outside of our particular orbit.
Hebrews 13, again, that very important petition. Let brotherly love continue, Hebrews 13.1. do we do that? Well, it's fleshed out in the following verses. How do we let brotherly love continue?
First, do not forget to entertain strangers, verse two. Four, by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels, okay? That's one way to let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers.
A second way to let brotherly love continue is found in verse 3. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also. So certainly we ought to increase the scope in terms of our prayer life to include us, to include our families, to include our particular local church, But certainly there is something about including others in that orbit of prayer so that we may also, on their behalf, say, give them this day our daily bread. And something very interesting about this Lord's Prayer, it's framed for the church's prayer life, our Father who art in heaven.
It is our collective voice that is being raised up to God to express the petitions concerning the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not first and foremost, my father in heaven, give me my daily bread, forgive me my debts, forgive or do not lead me into temptation. There's a plurality involved. There's a corporateness to it.
There's a conscientious reality that we are connected to a larger whole. And so when we pray these things, we ought to look abroad or look outside of ourselves.
Application and Conclusion
And in summary or in conclusion, there is an amazing connection between the petitions. We see it, again, with reference to God and man, but there is a a trajectory, God's name, God's kingdom, God's will, and then God's concern for our daily bread. not what we're ultimately petitioning. Give us this day our daily bread. God, be concerned for us such that you will sustain us, that you will bless us, that you will help us.
Lloyd-Jones says, it's not this one of the most wonderful things in the whole of scripture, that the God who is the creator and sustainer of the universe, the God who is forming his eternal kingdom and who will usher it in at the end, the God to whom the nations are but as the small dust of the balance, that such a God should be prepared to consider your little needs in mind even down to the minutest details in this matter of daily bread. It's really amazing. Give us this day our daily bread, the God who is over nations, the God who is over galaxies, the God who is absolutely sovereign over all things, you and I come and we say, Lord, can you please provide for us a loaf of bread so that we don't starve to death today? And God, in his kindness and in his mercy, more often than not, gives us those things.
As well, there is a need for thankfulness. Give us this day our daily bread. When that happens, we ought to say, thank you, God. We ought to be full of gratitude.
We ought to express that to Him. Deuteronomy 8.10, when you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Typically, we pray and then we eat. There's nothing wrong with eating and then praying.
Or you could pray, eat, pray, if you'd like to do that. But to eat, pray isn't necessarily evil. Deuteronomy says that. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you.
And then as well, the need for contentment, the need for contentment. I already mentioned 1 Timothy 6, 8, and having food and clothing with these, we shall be content. Manton said that God knows what proportion is best for us. He is a God of judgment and knows what is most convenient for us, for He is a wise God.
It is the shepherd must choose the pasture, not the sheep. So if he is pleased to give you a lot or a little, he has given you what you do not deserve. So therefore, express gratitude to him for his kind provision. Well, let us close in prayer.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for this model prayer. We thank You for these petitions which guide us, which direct us, which cause us to reflect and go to the throne of grace in an informed manner. We do pray that Your name would be glorified. We pray that Your kingdom would come and that Your will would be done.
We pray for daily provision for us in this room, for our entire church. Again, we pray for those with physical trials and struggles and difficulties. We just commit them to you and to the word of your grace and pray that you would sustain them daily and watch over them and protect them. We ask God that you would look with favor upon those in other countries dispossessed from their homes or businesses or churches because of cruel and vicious men.
We pray that You would watch over our brothers and sisters and that You would come to their aid, that You would provide for them, that You would defeat their enemies, that You would cause them to know Your victory and to know Your power and Your strength in these trying times. We do pray, Father, that You would just look with favor upon Your Church, upon your persecuted church, those who are suffering. We ask that you would come to their rescue. And we pray that you would help us to not forget these things, but to take them into our own prayer lives and to consider these things, because these are the things that you have said are important at the throne of grace.
Go with us now, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.