"Our Father"Sample

Jesus' teaching on prayer puts our earthly life in perspective. God is different from us. He controls creation and has a master plan for everything and everyone he has made.

The next portion of prayer that Jesus teaches is probably the part we understand and pray the most.

“Give us this day our daily bread” leads us to ask God for what we need. When Jesus said “our daily bread,” some of his followers were probably reminded of how God cared for the wilderness wandering Israelites by providing manna and quail daily (see Exodus 16).

Two things happen when we pray this way.

First, we see our dependence on God for all of life — food and clothing, house and money, good rulers and government, peace and trust with our neighbors, and so much more. We do not come up with these basic things. Everything we need to live in our world comes from God.

Second, we see how God has already provided for us. God has a really good track record. The Israelites forgot this when they got bored with the manna and quail. We can remember God's graciousness toward us simply by acknowledging that he’s already given us more than we need.

Jesus taught us to pray this way so we'd learn to be content with what we have, not to use prayer as a means to get what we want (but don’t need) from God.

TO THINK ABOUT

When you pray, how much of your time is spent asking God for things you want?

How do you see that God has provided for you in tangible ways?

What other way could you pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”? (Put it in your own words.)