Devotion - 4 March - Our Daily Bread

A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily prayers this week. The scripture is from our Sunday Service Bulletin for today.  Today we continue a Lenten sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer.

Gospel Reading- Matthew 7:7-11 [ESV]

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him.

Devotion: “P” is for Prayer-Our Daily Bread

Our New Testament text today tells us that God will truly answer our prayers as a parent would answer requests from children. The bread analogy is used here, and quite frequently in the bible, for our needs and not our “greed’s”. Getting back to our Lord’s prayer theme we say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” So, we are again talking about bread as life’s needs, but I’d like to focus on “daily”. If you remember the Old Testament story about the manna from heaven [see Exodus 16:13-18]. The Lord provided enough for daily consumption. If a person tried to store up excess for later, it would go bad in a day and not be edible. The Lord is trying to focus us on daily dependence upon him to get though life’s hurdles. In a world that praises self-sufficiency, it might be difficult for us to trust in the Lord to provide what we need. He promises, though, that he loves us unconditionally and wants our daily prayers.  He tells us that our Father who is in heaven will give good things to those who ask him. I hope you will try to remember the manna story in Exodus the next time you say this portion of the Lord’s Prayer.

We pray: “Lord, we give thanks for Your love and blessings. Amen”