Lord's Prayer: Give Us Todayنموونە

If you memorized the Lord’s Prayer, you know how the next line goes: “Give us this day our daily bread.” We really don’t talk like that anymore.

To see what Jesus is getting at, here’s a wooden and over-literal translation of the Greek. It shows the nuance of what Jesus is saying: “Our bread for the day, give to us today.” A bit redundant, yes. And with Yoda-like wording. But it points something out. Jesus is not telling us to ask God for all the things we’ll ever want or ever need. He’s telling us to ask God for what we need for today.

The Bible teacher, Ray Vander Laan, has a great way of illustrating this when he teaches Psalm 23. In commenting on those opening lines about God leading us like a shepherd to green pastures, he challenges a common assumption that we have in the United States. We imagine fat sheep frolicking in hip-deep alfalfa with meadows of green grass stretching farther than the eye can see.

That’s not the Middle East. There’s not a lot of rich Wisconsin farmland in Israel, so farmers would do their best to keep the shepherds out. So out on the hillsides and slopes, you’ll find grazing trails. At first glance, they look like rocky, desert-like places. Here, from small amounts of rain and moisture blowing in off the Mediterranean, small tufts of grass will form around the rocks. Here the shepherds lead their sheep. It’s not all-you-can-eat for the rest of your life. It’s enough to sustain the sheep for today.

God is certainly a God of abundance. And God has blessed so many of us with overabundance. What a blessing! But we might find ourselves on the rocky slopes too. We sometimes face overwhelming needs that we do not know how to meet, wondering how we’ll get through the day.

We tend to focus on our blessings or worry about our future. Jesus is redirecting our focus from either. The Shepherd knows what you need. Trust God for what you need. He’ll give you what you need for today.

Consider this today…

What do you need? Right now, today? Nothing is too big, small, or insignificant. Ask God for this today.