Real Hope: Your Kingdom ComeSample

The Food We Need

This portion of the Lord’s Prayer could be summarized as asking for our needs to be met: physical (food), emotional (forgiveness) and spiritual (protection). It is refreshing that Jesus is inviting us to bring such needs to God our Father in prayer, indicating that He is ready, willing, and able to answer us. Although these verses are simple and succinct, they do contain some fair and simple prerequisites for the answers to come.

‘Give us today the food we need’ does not necessarily include ‘give us everything we want’. On reflection, we could say that God is more than willing to answer prayers that help sustain us without catering to our every whim.

‘Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us’ is an incredible promise because only God can truly forgive sin, where sin is most accurately defined as ‘disobedience to God’. So, Jesus asks us to ask our Father to forgive us but reminds us that this is conditional, that we must forgive those who have wronged us. For some people, Jesus is asking us to do the impossible, but He offers an inconceivable promise of ‘sins forgiven’ in return.

‘Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil’ (MSG) is a great promise that seems to only work if we cooperate with God and don’t keep putting ourselves in harm’s way, only to expect God to bail us out.

My prayer – My Father, please help me to cooperate with you today, to know you more and to enjoy both your company and your provision. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Written by JOHN SCOTT