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The Lord's Prayer Part 3: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

“Give us this day our daily bread.”  Matthew 6:11 is a very important verse for us to have a greater understanding. It admits our need of God for all our provision, not just for bread.  The temptation, often subtle, when living in a nation like America where food is so plentiful  and there are literally multi-tons of it wasted and thrown out daily, is to develop an independent and self-sufficient attitude of pride and arrogance.  Even the poorest, “down and outer” is eligible for all sorts of welfare programs, food stamps, Christian soup kitchens, shelters, etc.  available for free.

The point that Jesus is bringing to us is that we must not fail to recognize God as the source of all our needs.  Even more importantly, is that we would continue to recognize Him as the source of “all good gifts.”  (James 1:17).    Whatever the need we may have, we can have assurance that we can approach God for these things. 


Some people are very reluctant to ask God for their particular needs since they often feel they are taking a resource that someone else may need more than they do or they just don’t want to “bother” God.  While this sounds noble, it is an erroneous belief.  I learned a lesson about this from my childhood.  Keeping enough food in the house while raising four ravenous boys wasn’t easy for my mother and she would often scold us and say “Don’t be such a pig and at least leave a few cookies for someone else!” 

Needless to say, when I became a Christian my past experience with cookies trained me to expect my Father to be skimpy towards my needs and to not expect too much since I should always “leave some cookies for someone else!”  What I had to learn was there are ALWAYS enough cookies in the God’s cookie jar!  There is more than enough for all His children….including you!   So don’t be bashful, Jesus said it is alright to ask our Heavenly Father for all our needs! “Give us this day our daily bread.”

There are some great lessons and insights found in the Scripture on trusting God for all of our needs and from them there is one very important lesson that stands out.  Learning how to give sacrificially to others and to God, for God loves generous people.  If we can learn to sacrifice and give to God and others, He leaves us with these promises:

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

"Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure-- pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return." (Luke 6:38)

God Bless,
Pastor Gary A. Smith
New Life Christian Fellowship

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