Thursday, June 21, 2007
Psalm 104:24,27-28 O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions . . . These all wait for You, That You may give them their food in due season. What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
This is the one petition of the Lord's prayer that focuses on our physical needs in this life. God provides for the physical needs of both believers and unbelievers. He provides the physical needs of believers whether we pray for them or not. So what is the purpose of this petition?
First we must acknowledge that the LORD gives us all things. The blessings we have do not come to us by chance. They come from God. We have a natural tendency to think that we have worked for all that we have and that makes what I have "mine". By praying "Give us this day our daily bread" we must first acknowledge that these blessings come from God.
What do we mean when we say "bread"? Scripture often uses the word "bread" in a general sense to describe everything that we need for this life. In this prayer we are asking that God would provide us with food (see Psalm 104:14-16), lodging (Psalm 104:16-18) and life itself (Psalm 104:29-30). We have needs every day, and the blessings of the LORD are also new every day -- a miracle of His love and care.
Finally we pray that the LORD would help us to be content with what He has given us. It is easy for us to take our blessings for granted, to worry about whether we will have enough, or become greedy and desire more than what we have. We pray that God would remove ungodly worry, distrust or coveting from us. We pray that we would accept God's gifts in our lives as His good will for us. We pray for trust in God to give us what we need when we need it, and that we might use the gifts God has given to us in a God pleasing way.
With David we pray: "I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the LORD" (Psalm 104:33-34).
