We are half way through the Lord’s prayer, and we now come to personal petition – the things that relate to us. And rightly so! We have spent our time focussed on God, who He is and what His will is, rather than us.

Give Us

The first thing I noticed is that it is not entirely personal. Give us. This is not ‘give me’ – it is give us. This is another reminder that our faith is a faith of community, a faith of family. In some way we are not just praying for our personal needs, but also those needs of the other Christians who are part of our family of God.

Day-Daily

The second thing I notice is that we are praying for immediate needs. Give us this day our daily bread. We are not praying for even this week’s needs, let alone next week's, month's, year’s needs. We are praying that God will provide for us – today – with what we need – today.

There are multiple reasons for this. The first is that we are focussed on God’s will for our lives, on God’s plan, and on God’s kingdom. We are not asking God to provide us with a retirement fund, 401K or superannuation. We are not asking God to provide us with money to holiday to Disneyland (as much as that is not a bad thing!). We are asking God to provide us with todays needs today.

The second reason is that we need to come before God daily, even more than once a day! If God were to dump in our laps a few million dollars today, that we might buy a house, car, RV and have enough left over to eat for the next 20 years, where is our reliance on Him? Do not mistake me – riches are a gift from God, and a responsibility to those who He gives them to. But we are not asking for riches, or even asking for security, but simply provision for this day, for us and those around us.

Lastly, I think this is also a reminder that our faith needs to be simple. We are praying for big things like God’s kingdom and global revelation of His will, but in our own needs we pray for today’s bread. We are not praying for a complex scheme to enable provision for years to come, but for today’s bread that we can be thankful for, and then go back to God tomorrow.

Give us this day our daily bread.

As we come before God and pray this, remember we are not just asking for ourselves, but also for those around us in the family of God. And we are asking daily for daily provision – in the knowledge that we don’t need to plan ahead, strive and fight to ensure survival, but to take our needs before God daily and let Him lead and guide us.

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