Give us this Day our Daily Bread
Copyright: South Bay Community Church2023
Sermon Preamble
We are in the sermon series titled, “Thy Kingdom Come” taking a deeper look at the scripture, commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer or the disciples’ prayer, and how this prayer shapes the life of the believer. The Lord’s Prayer has seven petitions. In the past two messages, Pastor Tammy Long has examined the first three “Thy” petitions of the Lord’s Prayer – Thy Name, Thy Kingdom, and Thy Will. These three “Thy” petitions address God. The remaining four Us-petitions: Give Us, Forgive Us, Lead Us Not, and Deliver Us – are prayers related to our needs and concerns. In this message, we will focus on the fourth of the seven petitions, “Give us this day our daily bread” found in Matthew 6:11.
“Give Me” request is based on an expectation that God has set for us in God’s Word
Saying “give me” is a statement that may be based on a sense of inappropriate entitlement. For example, the prodigal son in Luke 15 demanded that his father give him his portion of the estate without reverence or respect for the father. This was a selfish demand by the son.
When would it be fine for the child to say to their parents, “Give me?” The parents have established that they have something they want to give to the child. It is the parents’ intention and delight to give to them what they have. In that event, the child’s request is coming from an expectation that the parents have set.
In the same way, our requests for God to “give me” come from an expectation that God has set for believers in God’s Word. God’s Word sets our expectation that God wants to bless us! “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). “But seek His Kingdom, and these things will be added unto you. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:31-32). God has blessings God wants to give us. It is God’s intention and delight to bless God’s children. Therefore, we can come boldly “to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). God wants to bless us as we establish in our hearts certain foundational truths!
Before we can ask God to “give us” we must establish in our heart certain foundational truths
“Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). “Our Father” – God is our Father; we are God’s children. We are communing with God who loves us. “Which art in heaven” – God is majestic and holy. “Hallowed be thy name” – God is worthy of honor and glory. “Thy Kingdom come” – We acknowledge God’s Kingship, and we acknowledge God’s Kingdom rule. “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – We lovingly submit to and humbly embrace God’s Will.
When we have established these truths in our heart, we are positioned to say to our Heavenly Father, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
God will not force us to request our daily bread. God will not impose against our will. “For your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). In praying, “Give us this day” God wants us to choose to invite God into our lives. Our Heavenly Father stands ready and is always prepared to give God’s children what they need when they ask.
The request “Give us” instructs us to not only pray for ourselves, but also pray for one another
“Give us” means we are not just consumed with our own needs, but we are also consumed with the needs of those around us, praying for our neighbors.
“Give us” invites us into God’s work. “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them” (1 Timothy 2:1). As God’s children, we are all equipped to pray on behalf of others. We are co-heirs with Christ. We are adopted sons and daughters; therefore, we possess access to God. Sharing in the inheritance of Jesus, we are called high priests (1 Peter 2:9) with a direct connection to God and an opportunity to offer up prayers on behalf of family, friends, neighbors, government officials, and our nation. Praying “give us” for others opens pathways to compassion and unity, as we love one another as God has loved us. The words do not have to be perfect, only spoken through love, trust, and faith in God who hears and answers our daily prayer.
“This day” is about Jesus teaching disciples and us as believers to pray every day
To pray “this day,” we must pray to the Lord every day. Jesus knows that in order to live victoriously for the Kingdom, we will need a fresh outpouring of God’s presence and power every single day. Daily prayer helps us to avoid being burnt out, stressed. Jesus does not want us to live today on yesterday’s prayer. It is not enough to just pray weekly during the Sunday worship service. Jesus is teaching us the importance of being daily dependent and completely reliant upon God for all that we need for each day. To protect us every single day, invite the Lord to be with us, to cover us, and to direct us.
Praying, “this day” is an invitation to worry less and to trust that God is going to take care of all our tomorrows. When we do not come to God for “this day,” we can quickly become independent, and self-reliant. The cares of tomorrow can steal away the joy of today. A psalm writer instructs us to focus on the joys of each day: “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). Jesus reiterates this daily dependency when Jesus exhorts us “not to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself” (Matthew 6:34).
Praying daily includes prayer for our daily bread.
“Our daily bread” is a hard concept for us to embrace; our society does not embrace daily
As used in Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3, the word daily means “of the day that is coming.” Based on the example of rising early in the morning to pray, Jesus instructs us to pray for the needs of the coming day on the morning of that day.
The concept of “daily bread” may be one of the hardest concepts for us to embrace. Our society does not typically embrace a “daily” concept. Today’s society embraces the concept of giving me more, getting all I can, and planning for tomorrow. It is not often that we go to the grocery store or to the gas station and get only what we need for that day. The biblical principle, “the day that is coming,” may be hard to conceive in our minds. Society looks for security in what we have stored up or saved. Yet Jesus is instructing us to ask God to “give us this day our daily bread.” This biblical principle does not mean that we do not plan or prepare, but it does mean that we are ultimately dependent and reliant upon God for our daily needs.
Jesus teaches us that every child of God must be reliant on God for every need on every day
The biblical principle truth is that we do not know what tomorrow holds, but God knows. The stock market crashes, investments depreciate, life changing events can happen in the blink of an eye. However, our days are in the hands of our All-Mighty God.
To pray “give us this day our daily bread” invites us into a dependence upon God where we trust that God knows what we need and that God will supply all our needs according to God’s riches and glory. When we ask for our daily bread, the prayer teaches us to rely upon God providing all our needs, a biblical principle known as Divine Providence. What is the daily bread that God provides?
“Daily bread” is about spiritual matters, not just daily physical food
This is the only material request in the entire prayer; all the other requests relate to our spirit and soul such as forgiveness, protection and guidance. It may appear that Jesus is asking us to pray for physical food every day, yet the context of the chapter suggest that Jesus had more spiritual matters on His mind.
Only a few verses after the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches that life is more than food: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; not about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? …. Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What shall we wear?’” (Matthew 6:25-26, 31).
Jesus is the bread of life
In teaching us to ask God for our daily bread, Jesus does not have physical food foremost in His mind. Then, what is this bread we are to ask for daily? Jesus provides the answer. “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.’”(John 6:35).
The book of Exodus contains the account of God giving the Israelites manna. The manna was about food for the body, but it was also symbolic of Christ, the bread of life. “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I (Jesus) 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” (John 6:49-51).
God gave the Israelites bread from heaven, and God gave us Jesus, the bread of life, from heaven
In the Exodus account, the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. God confirms God’s promise to provide for the children of Israel by telling Moses that God will give them food, so they will know the Lord is their God. “And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness, there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, ‘it is manna’; for they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them, ‘This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.’” (Exodus 16:14-15).
The Israelites had a part in receiving nourishment from the mana. They were required to rise early and gather their daily nourishment. If they gathered more than they needed for the day, it would spoil. It would be of no use to them and would not give them the nourishment they needed.
God gave the Israelites bread from heaven. When God gave us Jesus, God’s only Son, God gave us bread from heaven. Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is our daily bread.
Our Father graciously supplies our every need one day at a time
D. L. Moody wrote these insights on spiritual daily bread. "A man can no more take a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough today to last him for the next 6 months, nor can he inhale sufficient air into his lungs with one breath to sustain life for a week to come. We are permitted to draw upon God’s store of grace from day to day as we need it! God never gives His strength in advance, so let’s stop crossing bridges before we come to them. The Heavenly Father will graciously supply our every need—one day at a time! Don’t try to bear tomorrow’s burdens with today’s grace.”
Each of us may receive different but generous daily bread from God with grace, peace, and love
Your daily bread may be different than mine. Let us forever think of God as the bountiful and generous Giver. Too often God has been described as hard and austere. As a result, people dread God, and only think of God when we have done wrong. But we should describe God as the All-Giver, who gives all things to all with the most royal generosity. God gives sunbeams and dewdrops, showers and rainbows, grace and glory, God’s beloved Son and God’s Spirit, human love and friendship, the daily spreading of our table, the provision of all that we need for life and godliness. Whether we are awake or asleep, whether we are evil or good, whether we are pleasing to God or not; to those who forget and blaspheme God equally as to the saints and martyrs of the Church, God gives with both hands, pressed down and running over. For God’s giving, we cannot buy, we do not merit, we cannot claim, but we may rely on God to give. God is Love; Love cannot refrain from giving, or it ceases to be Love.
Yet how low God stoops! God is so great, that His greatness is unsearchable. God dwells in the highest and loftiest place. God created the sun that is ninety-three million miles away from our earth; God has filled the heavens with countless constellations, each of which God has named. He measures the Himalayas, yet the islands are as dust in God’s balances. Jesus has taught us to say, "Our Father, give us bread!" When we get troubled about the immensity of heaven and the distances of the universe, let us come back to this prayer, which tells us that the great God thinks about the clothing of the lilies, the down on a butterfly's wings, the food of the young lions in the forest, the store of acorns that squirrels accumulate for their provision. It is wonderful to remember that from the first days of man's sojourn on earth, our Father has been providing for us. Though we may be the youngest children of God’s creation, we come to a table as richly replenished and provided for as those who first tasted God’s bounty. "Fear not, it is your Father's good pleasure to give…." (Luke 12:32).
God knows exactly what we will need for each day
Since God is the holder of all of our days, God knows exactly what we will need for each day. Our steps are ordered by God, so how important is it that we come before God daily and request, “Give us this day our daily bread?” Each person’s daily bread is different. Your bread for the day may be an abundance of grace so you can respond to a situation that requires grace. It may be more peace so you can respond to the storm you will face in that day. Perhaps faith is your daily bread for when something you have believed doesn’t go the way you expect it to go.
God, the holder of all our days, is ready with loving and capable arms to answer the request: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Application of prayer to “give us this day our daily bread”
It is a prayer that shapes our hearts to be content with just enough for our daily needs. It is a prayer that gives thanks for what we have, and sets us free from worry. It is a prayer to remember to pray for our brothers and our sisters. It is a prayer to focus on the things that matter most: our relationship and dependence upon a loving God and our relationship with others. It is a prayer that reminds us ultimately that God is our loving provider.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS INCLUDING FOR USE IN FAMILY GROUPS
Sermon Preamble
-In the fourth petition of “give us this day our daily bread” in what ways might this petition involve a spiritual need, not just physical food or other human physical needs. What evidence from scripture do you see that indicates Jesus is also speaking about a spiritual need for human beings?
“Give Me” request is based on an expectation that God has set for us in God’s Word
What are the differences between an inappropriate, selfish, and disrespectful demand of a child to their parent, as compared to an appropriate request to give from a child to a parent? How can this principle apply to requests from children of God to the All-Mighty Heavenly Father?
Before we can ask God to “give us” we must establish in our heart certain foundational truths
What foundational truths should be established in our hearts before we pray to our Heavenly Father, the all-mighty, gracious, and loving God to “give us this day our daily bread?”
The request “Give us” instructs us to not only pray for ourselves, but also pray for one another
What are some of the benefits and responsibilities in praying not only for ourselves, but also for one another? Why is it important to pray for one another with fellowship and empathy? When does prayer help bring forth compassion and unity?
“This day” is about Jesus teaching disciples and us as believers to pray every day
In what ways is your life different when you pray every day for your spiritual and physical needs? If you are not praying daily, what adjustments will you make to pray daily for your spiritual and physical needs?
“Our daily bread” is a hard concept for us to embrace; our society does not embrace daily
When do you struggle with embracing God’s daily provision?
Jesus teaches us that every child of God must be reliant on God for every need on every day
Because God provides our daily spiritual and physical needs and knows what tomorrow holds, why must we rely on God in daily prayer?
“Daily bread” is about spiritual matters, not just daily physical food
When you review Matthew 6:25-31, what words of Jesus suggest that “daily bread” is speaking about spiritual life, not just physical food?
Jesus is the bread of life
When you review John 6:35 and John 6:49-51, who is the bread of life, and why is this important?
God gave the Israelites bread from heaven, and God gave us Jesus, the bread of life, from heaven
What parallels do you see between the manna given to the Israelites daily in the wilderness, and Jesus, the fully divine and fully human Savior given to us followers of Christ? Why is manna considered a representation of Jesus?
Our Father graciously supplies our every need one day at a time
What insight on daily bread from D.L. Moody most resonates with you? Why?
Each of us may receive different but generous daily bread from God with grace, peace, and love
How does it make you feel that God is a daily bountiful and generous giver?
God knows exactly what we will need for each day
Do our needs from God for each day vary with the circumstances we will face? For some days you will need God to provide generosity in grace; other days will require God’s generous provision of peace; God gives out of love. In what circumstance have you needed God’s generous grace, peace, or love?
Application of prayer to “give us this day our daily bread”
In the next week, how will you apply the prayer to “give us this day our daily bread?”
We are in the sermon series titled, “Thy Kingdom Come” taking a deeper look at the scripture, commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer or the disciples’ prayer, and how this prayer shapes the life of the believer. The Lord’s Prayer has seven petitions. In the past two messages, Pastor Tammy Long has examined the first three “Thy” petitions of the Lord’s Prayer – Thy Name, Thy Kingdom, and Thy Will. These three “Thy” petitions address God. The remaining four Us-petitions: Give Us, Forgive Us, Lead Us Not, and Deliver Us – are prayers related to our needs and concerns. In this message, we will focus on the fourth of the seven petitions, “Give us this day our daily bread” found in Matthew 6:11.
“Give Me” request is based on an expectation that God has set for us in God’s Word
Saying “give me” is a statement that may be based on a sense of inappropriate entitlement. For example, the prodigal son in Luke 15 demanded that his father give him his portion of the estate without reverence or respect for the father. This was a selfish demand by the son.
When would it be fine for the child to say to their parents, “Give me?” The parents have established that they have something they want to give to the child. It is the parents’ intention and delight to give to them what they have. In that event, the child’s request is coming from an expectation that the parents have set.
In the same way, our requests for God to “give me” come from an expectation that God has set for believers in God’s Word. God’s Word sets our expectation that God wants to bless us! “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). “But seek His Kingdom, and these things will be added unto you. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:31-32). God has blessings God wants to give us. It is God’s intention and delight to bless God’s children. Therefore, we can come boldly “to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). God wants to bless us as we establish in our hearts certain foundational truths!
Before we can ask God to “give us” we must establish in our heart certain foundational truths
“Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). “Our Father” – God is our Father; we are God’s children. We are communing with God who loves us. “Which art in heaven” – God is majestic and holy. “Hallowed be thy name” – God is worthy of honor and glory. “Thy Kingdom come” – We acknowledge God’s Kingship, and we acknowledge God’s Kingdom rule. “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – We lovingly submit to and humbly embrace God’s Will.
When we have established these truths in our heart, we are positioned to say to our Heavenly Father, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
God will not force us to request our daily bread. God will not impose against our will. “For your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). In praying, “Give us this day” God wants us to choose to invite God into our lives. Our Heavenly Father stands ready and is always prepared to give God’s children what they need when they ask.
The request “Give us” instructs us to not only pray for ourselves, but also pray for one another
“Give us” means we are not just consumed with our own needs, but we are also consumed with the needs of those around us, praying for our neighbors.
“Give us” invites us into God’s work. “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them” (1 Timothy 2:1). As God’s children, we are all equipped to pray on behalf of others. We are co-heirs with Christ. We are adopted sons and daughters; therefore, we possess access to God. Sharing in the inheritance of Jesus, we are called high priests (1 Peter 2:9) with a direct connection to God and an opportunity to offer up prayers on behalf of family, friends, neighbors, government officials, and our nation. Praying “give us” for others opens pathways to compassion and unity, as we love one another as God has loved us. The words do not have to be perfect, only spoken through love, trust, and faith in God who hears and answers our daily prayer.
“This day” is about Jesus teaching disciples and us as believers to pray every day
To pray “this day,” we must pray to the Lord every day. Jesus knows that in order to live victoriously for the Kingdom, we will need a fresh outpouring of God’s presence and power every single day. Daily prayer helps us to avoid being burnt out, stressed. Jesus does not want us to live today on yesterday’s prayer. It is not enough to just pray weekly during the Sunday worship service. Jesus is teaching us the importance of being daily dependent and completely reliant upon God for all that we need for each day. To protect us every single day, invite the Lord to be with us, to cover us, and to direct us.
Praying, “this day” is an invitation to worry less and to trust that God is going to take care of all our tomorrows. When we do not come to God for “this day,” we can quickly become independent, and self-reliant. The cares of tomorrow can steal away the joy of today. A psalm writer instructs us to focus on the joys of each day: “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). Jesus reiterates this daily dependency when Jesus exhorts us “not to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself” (Matthew 6:34).
Praying daily includes prayer for our daily bread.
“Our daily bread” is a hard concept for us to embrace; our society does not embrace daily
As used in Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3, the word daily means “of the day that is coming.” Based on the example of rising early in the morning to pray, Jesus instructs us to pray for the needs of the coming day on the morning of that day.
The concept of “daily bread” may be one of the hardest concepts for us to embrace. Our society does not typically embrace a “daily” concept. Today’s society embraces the concept of giving me more, getting all I can, and planning for tomorrow. It is not often that we go to the grocery store or to the gas station and get only what we need for that day. The biblical principle, “the day that is coming,” may be hard to conceive in our minds. Society looks for security in what we have stored up or saved. Yet Jesus is instructing us to ask God to “give us this day our daily bread.” This biblical principle does not mean that we do not plan or prepare, but it does mean that we are ultimately dependent and reliant upon God for our daily needs.
Jesus teaches us that every child of God must be reliant on God for every need on every day
The biblical principle truth is that we do not know what tomorrow holds, but God knows. The stock market crashes, investments depreciate, life changing events can happen in the blink of an eye. However, our days are in the hands of our All-Mighty God.
To pray “give us this day our daily bread” invites us into a dependence upon God where we trust that God knows what we need and that God will supply all our needs according to God’s riches and glory. When we ask for our daily bread, the prayer teaches us to rely upon God providing all our needs, a biblical principle known as Divine Providence. What is the daily bread that God provides?
“Daily bread” is about spiritual matters, not just daily physical food
This is the only material request in the entire prayer; all the other requests relate to our spirit and soul such as forgiveness, protection and guidance. It may appear that Jesus is asking us to pray for physical food every day, yet the context of the chapter suggest that Jesus had more spiritual matters on His mind.
Only a few verses after the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches that life is more than food: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; not about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? …. Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What shall we wear?’” (Matthew 6:25-26, 31).
Jesus is the bread of life
In teaching us to ask God for our daily bread, Jesus does not have physical food foremost in His mind. Then, what is this bread we are to ask for daily? Jesus provides the answer. “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.’”(John 6:35).
The book of Exodus contains the account of God giving the Israelites manna. The manna was about food for the body, but it was also symbolic of Christ, the bread of life. “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I (Jesus) 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” (John 6:49-51).
God gave the Israelites bread from heaven, and God gave us Jesus, the bread of life, from heaven
In the Exodus account, the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. God confirms God’s promise to provide for the children of Israel by telling Moses that God will give them food, so they will know the Lord is their God. “And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness, there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, ‘it is manna’; for they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them, ‘This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.’” (Exodus 16:14-15).
The Israelites had a part in receiving nourishment from the mana. They were required to rise early and gather their daily nourishment. If they gathered more than they needed for the day, it would spoil. It would be of no use to them and would not give them the nourishment they needed.
God gave the Israelites bread from heaven. When God gave us Jesus, God’s only Son, God gave us bread from heaven. Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is our daily bread.
Our Father graciously supplies our every need one day at a time
D. L. Moody wrote these insights on spiritual daily bread. "A man can no more take a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough today to last him for the next 6 months, nor can he inhale sufficient air into his lungs with one breath to sustain life for a week to come. We are permitted to draw upon God’s store of grace from day to day as we need it! God never gives His strength in advance, so let’s stop crossing bridges before we come to them. The Heavenly Father will graciously supply our every need—one day at a time! Don’t try to bear tomorrow’s burdens with today’s grace.”
Each of us may receive different but generous daily bread from God with grace, peace, and love
Your daily bread may be different than mine. Let us forever think of God as the bountiful and generous Giver. Too often God has been described as hard and austere. As a result, people dread God, and only think of God when we have done wrong. But we should describe God as the All-Giver, who gives all things to all with the most royal generosity. God gives sunbeams and dewdrops, showers and rainbows, grace and glory, God’s beloved Son and God’s Spirit, human love and friendship, the daily spreading of our table, the provision of all that we need for life and godliness. Whether we are awake or asleep, whether we are evil or good, whether we are pleasing to God or not; to those who forget and blaspheme God equally as to the saints and martyrs of the Church, God gives with both hands, pressed down and running over. For God’s giving, we cannot buy, we do not merit, we cannot claim, but we may rely on God to give. God is Love; Love cannot refrain from giving, or it ceases to be Love.
Yet how low God stoops! God is so great, that His greatness is unsearchable. God dwells in the highest and loftiest place. God created the sun that is ninety-three million miles away from our earth; God has filled the heavens with countless constellations, each of which God has named. He measures the Himalayas, yet the islands are as dust in God’s balances. Jesus has taught us to say, "Our Father, give us bread!" When we get troubled about the immensity of heaven and the distances of the universe, let us come back to this prayer, which tells us that the great God thinks about the clothing of the lilies, the down on a butterfly's wings, the food of the young lions in the forest, the store of acorns that squirrels accumulate for their provision. It is wonderful to remember that from the first days of man's sojourn on earth, our Father has been providing for us. Though we may be the youngest children of God’s creation, we come to a table as richly replenished and provided for as those who first tasted God’s bounty. "Fear not, it is your Father's good pleasure to give…." (Luke 12:32).
God knows exactly what we will need for each day
Since God is the holder of all of our days, God knows exactly what we will need for each day. Our steps are ordered by God, so how important is it that we come before God daily and request, “Give us this day our daily bread?” Each person’s daily bread is different. Your bread for the day may be an abundance of grace so you can respond to a situation that requires grace. It may be more peace so you can respond to the storm you will face in that day. Perhaps faith is your daily bread for when something you have believed doesn’t go the way you expect it to go.
God, the holder of all our days, is ready with loving and capable arms to answer the request: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Application of prayer to “give us this day our daily bread”
It is a prayer that shapes our hearts to be content with just enough for our daily needs. It is a prayer that gives thanks for what we have, and sets us free from worry. It is a prayer to remember to pray for our brothers and our sisters. It is a prayer to focus on the things that matter most: our relationship and dependence upon a loving God and our relationship with others. It is a prayer that reminds us ultimately that God is our loving provider.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS INCLUDING FOR USE IN FAMILY GROUPS
Sermon Preamble
-In the fourth petition of “give us this day our daily bread” in what ways might this petition involve a spiritual need, not just physical food or other human physical needs. What evidence from scripture do you see that indicates Jesus is also speaking about a spiritual need for human beings?
“Give Me” request is based on an expectation that God has set for us in God’s Word
What are the differences between an inappropriate, selfish, and disrespectful demand of a child to their parent, as compared to an appropriate request to give from a child to a parent? How can this principle apply to requests from children of God to the All-Mighty Heavenly Father?
Before we can ask God to “give us” we must establish in our heart certain foundational truths
What foundational truths should be established in our hearts before we pray to our Heavenly Father, the all-mighty, gracious, and loving God to “give us this day our daily bread?”
The request “Give us” instructs us to not only pray for ourselves, but also pray for one another
What are some of the benefits and responsibilities in praying not only for ourselves, but also for one another? Why is it important to pray for one another with fellowship and empathy? When does prayer help bring forth compassion and unity?
“This day” is about Jesus teaching disciples and us as believers to pray every day
In what ways is your life different when you pray every day for your spiritual and physical needs? If you are not praying daily, what adjustments will you make to pray daily for your spiritual and physical needs?
“Our daily bread” is a hard concept for us to embrace; our society does not embrace daily
When do you struggle with embracing God’s daily provision?
Jesus teaches us that every child of God must be reliant on God for every need on every day
Because God provides our daily spiritual and physical needs and knows what tomorrow holds, why must we rely on God in daily prayer?
“Daily bread” is about spiritual matters, not just daily physical food
When you review Matthew 6:25-31, what words of Jesus suggest that “daily bread” is speaking about spiritual life, not just physical food?
Jesus is the bread of life
When you review John 6:35 and John 6:49-51, who is the bread of life, and why is this important?
God gave the Israelites bread from heaven, and God gave us Jesus, the bread of life, from heaven
What parallels do you see between the manna given to the Israelites daily in the wilderness, and Jesus, the fully divine and fully human Savior given to us followers of Christ? Why is manna considered a representation of Jesus?
Our Father graciously supplies our every need one day at a time
What insight on daily bread from D.L. Moody most resonates with you? Why?
Each of us may receive different but generous daily bread from God with grace, peace, and love
How does it make you feel that God is a daily bountiful and generous giver?
God knows exactly what we will need for each day
Do our needs from God for each day vary with the circumstances we will face? For some days you will need God to provide generosity in grace; other days will require God’s generous provision of peace; God gives out of love. In what circumstance have you needed God’s generous grace, peace, or love?
Application of prayer to “give us this day our daily bread”
In the next week, how will you apply the prayer to “give us this day our daily bread?”
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