Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
This month, let's meditate on this line, "Give us this day our daily bread."
In the middle of these, the words Jesus taught us to pray, we ask God to give us our daily bread.
Consider three points:
1) We ASK
2) We ask FOR BREAD
3) We ask for bread for TODAY
1) God already knows what we need, but He wants us to ASK Him anyway.
The ASKING is where strangers become friends.
The ASKING is where fear becomes love.
The ASKING is where 2 become 1.
The ASKING is where we meet God.
It means a lot to love someone enough to help when they need us.
In this prayer, God asks us to love Him enough to admit that we need Him.
2) BREAD reflects the essence of humanity.
The ingredients fundamentally transform from their initial state, together becoming a new food.
BREAD is energy.
BREAD is life.
BREAD is survival.
It means a lot to ask God for what we would like or would want.
In this prayer, God asks us to trust Him to fulfill our NEED, our absolute NEED to be given the gift of life for one more week, one more day, one more hour, one more moment.
3) DAILY we wake up, and DAILY we go to sleep.
DAILY the sun rises, and DAILY the sun sets.
Yesterday will never return, and tomorrow will always lie ahead;
TODAY is the only day we have. 'This day' means right now.
Every breath of life is a new gift from God. Every moment is 'our daily bread,' and God wants nothing more than for us to know Him so well, love Him so much, and serve Him so freely that our lives respond to his gift every moment with our request for one day's bread and our thanks for being fed.
How is today going?
How has God fed you when you were most in need?
Have you asked God, today, for your daily bread?
How could you thank God today for your daily bread?
