GOD'S PROVISION

Give us this day our daily bread.
Matthew 6:11

Many of us wouldn’t notice if this part of the prayer was suddenly omitted. The rest of the Lord’s Prayer seems to be so incredibly potent for us: kingdom, forgiveness, temptation, evil … but besides 'saying grace' at the beginning of a meal, do we ever really worry about where our next meal will come from? 

Imagine you were living 2000 years ago (or the majority world today!) and you lived hand to mouth. Take a moment to place yourself in a position where you didn’t know where your next meal was coming from. How much more pertinent would this prayer be?

This should not produce a particular form of Western guilt in us; this reality should drive us to respond in three ways:

1. GRATEFULNESS

This petition in the Lord’s Prayer should form us to be a grateful people. How good is God to provide for us, not only for today’s meal, but for the next 20 in our cupboards?

2. HUMILITY

This petition in the Lord’s Prayer should form us to be a humble people. How amazing is it that even while most of us will go to the local markets or shops to buy food, this reminds us that all good things ultimately come from God’s gracious hand!? We are ultimately not in control, he is. 

3. GENEROSITY

This petition in the Lord’s Prayer should form us to be a generous people. The brother of Jesus reminds us, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled’, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15–16) 

I am reminded of what a friend said to me one day: “Grace comes to you on the way to somebody else. Don’t hoard it.”

And so praying this prayer daily will not be an exercise in getting you into the Kingdom but it will get the Kingdom into you. It will radically upend the way you see and experience God’s good world and your place in it. 

You move from consumerism to service as you give thanks to the God of all provision, allow that reality to humble you and live lives of radical generosity knowing that “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” (Jim Elliott). 

And the joy of living out of the reality of the Kingdom of God is something that even death will only intensify!

May his favour be upon you today.