Prayer of Dependence

Text: “Pray then like this: “... Give us this day our daily bread.”

(Matthew 6:11a) [ESV]

“Daily Bread” Means Essential Needs!

“Daily bread” refers not only to food on our tables but to life’s essential needs. This petition does not refer to literal bread only. “Bread” in Hebrew meant all kinds of nutrition. But it is even more than that. “Daily bread” refers to everything nonspiritual that we must have in order to live and cope. It refers to physical needs, emotional needs, material needs—every need not specifically mentioned in the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.

Therefore when you pray, “Give us today our daily bread,” you are asking God to step in to give you not only food but also shelter and clothing; to supply your financial needs; to give emotional strength and clarity of mind; to give you friends and fellowship; to grant transportation as needed; to equip you for your job, career and future; to help you get done what you need to get done this very day; to be at your best; to help you in your preparation and to provide providences that further God’s plan for your life. “Our daily bread,” then, covers everything that is essential to our well-being in life.”

Excerpt From: Dr. R. T. Kendall. “Lord's Prayer.” Publisher, 2010-06-28. iBooks.

“This simple request has much to teach us, and I want us to note each element of it. First, notice that Jesus didn’t teach us to pray that God would sell us our daily bread or render it to us in exchange for our service; instead, in this petition, we manifestly ask God to give us something. We ask Him to give us daily bread. We are so needy as to be destitute, but He owns “the cattle on a thousand hills” (Ps. 50:10b), so we go to Him as beggars asking for His charity. Scripture assures us that we can depend on Him to respond to such requests, for He is a giving God: “Every good and every perfect gift is from 

above, and comes down from the “Father of lights” (James 1:17a).”

“David wrote, “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have” “not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread” (Ps. 37:25). That’s a tremendous testimony to the constancy with which God answers the prayers of His people when they bring their needs to Him.

Therefore, in this petition we are praying: “In Your sovereign providence, O God, please give us what we need. As You care for us, please provide us with the things we require for life in this world.”

“Just in passing, I think it is important to note that there is a synergistic relationship between divine providence and our own labor. Jesus didn’t tell us to ask the Lord for our daily bread so that we can sleep in each morning and make no effort to bring forth the fruit of honest labor. On the contrary, God commands us to be productive in our labor and with respect to the provision of our daily needs. The apostle Paul tells us that “if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8). So on the one hand, we have to trust in the benevolent providence of God to give us our daily bread, and on the other hand, we are to be industrious, doing all that we can to” “provide for our families. God typically works through means, and He normally provides through the means of our labor.”

Excerpt From: Dr. R.C. Sproul. “The Prayer of the Lord.” Reformation Trust Publishing, 2009. iBooks.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What's your favorite type of bread? Why?
2. When you read "Give us this day our daily bread," what do/did you think Jesus was talking about? What has influenced your thought?
3. Read Psalm 50:10. What is David really saying? How does this apply to you and perhaps the current situation you're facing?
4. Read Psalm 37:25. Does it offer you any comfort? How?
5. Read 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12. How do you reconcile this with what we are asked to pray for?
6. What in Pastor Ruben's Sunday message was affirming to you? What was unclear and left you with question(s)?
7. What is it that you need, not want, but need the Lord to provide for You? How can you partner with God in search of a solution?

"THE PRAYER OF RECOGNITION"

Text: “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name …” (Matthew 6:9b) [ESV]

The very fact you pray is an acknowledgement that God exists and that you need Him.  Prayer demonstrates that you value God for who He is – the one true God, the One totally set apart from. man, other than man, and more than man. He is God, the first and the last. Jehovah – Lord – the self-existent One (Genesis 2:4); Exodus 3:13-15; 6:3). There is no God besides Him (Isaiah 44:6).

When you come to God in prayer, you are coming to One greater and mightier than yourself, One whose memorial name to all generations is… “I AM”.

To worship God is to bow before Him, acknowledge His worth, and give Him the honor and reverence due His holy name. When we worship God, we rightly acknowledge God’s worth, who He is, what He has done, and what He is able to do!

When you think about it, for prayer to begin and end with worship of the One who is in heaven – above all the earth, above all that is – is only logical. The Lord who has “established His throne in the heavens” and whose “sovereignty rules over all” (Psalm 103:19) is able to do “according to His will in the host of heave and among the inhabitants of earth” (Daniel 4:35). Worship correctly prepares us for all that follows in prayer.

Hallow is the word translated from the Greek hagiazo, which comes from hagios – which is

to make holy, to set apart, to make a person or thing the opposite of common. To hallow God’s name is to reverence it by believing He is who His Word says He is, and that He will always be and always do what He says!

God’s name represents who He is.  It reveals His character and attributes. The psalmists wrote, “You have magnified Your word according to all Your name” (Psalm 138:2). “According to” could be translated “together with.”  In other words, God’s Word stands because God’s name stands! One commentator writes, “The name of the Lord denotes not merely a title, but includes all that by which He makes Himself known and all that He shows Himself to be.”

One of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain …” (Exodus 20:7). Vain means “empty, worthless – hollow” rather that “hallowed”.

We take God’s name in vain when we disbelieve, deny, or distort the truth about God. The opposite of taking the Lord’s name in vain is hallowing it! As said earlier, His name testifies to His character. If you hallow His name, then you acknowledge and respect who He is and act accordingly. When you and I refuse to believe God is who He says He is and do what He ways He will do, then we demean and defame Him!

In other words, we “hollow” our Father’s name instead of “hallowing” it.

That’s something to think about, isn’t it?  Many who would never think of taking the Lord’s name in vain by cursing or by speaking it in a casual way, still desecrate His name when they doubt, deny, or defame His character!  OUCH!!!

Some Excerpts from, “Lord Teach Me To Pray in 28 Days” by Kay Arthur

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does your family/last name mean?  Where did it come from? (Country or origin?)
2. What do people mean when they say, “He has a good name or He has a bad name”?  Have you ever intentionally slandered someone’s name?
3. How have you personally taken the Lord’s name in vain?  
4. Why does prayer begin with worship? How does the act of worship demonstrate that you value God for who He is?
5. Why should we “hallow” Him? (Reminder: To “hallow” God’s name is to reverence it by believing He is who His Word says He is, and that He will always be and always do what He says.)
6. Which of the names of God represents a need in your life right now?  What are you trusting Him for?