Our Daily Bread

Welcome to the Timeless Truth podcast, a resource of The Village Chapel in Nashville, TN. In season 5, Pastor Jim will lead us through a study of The Lord's Prayer.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Timeless Truth with Pastor Jim Thomas, a resource of the Village Chapel in Nashville, Tennessee. If you'd like more resources like this one, take a look at our recently revamped Biblical Resources Library at the Villagechapel.com slash resources. As a listener to this podcast, you may also enjoy one of our Creative Thinking podcasts and related events hosted by Kim Thomas. We'll put a link in the show notes to learn more and subscribe to Creative Thinking. We're glad you're here this week as we continue our study of the Lord's Prayer. Now, here's Pastor Jim.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

So in this episode of Timeless Truth, I want to begin to take a look at the second section of the Lord's Prayer, where Jesus teaches us how to pray about our present, our past, and our future. But before we take our first look at that, let's pray the entire prayer together. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. And Amen. Well, I want to focus in today on that line. Give us this day our daily bread. This is the fourth petition, and it's the first line that is really about our needs, our sort of about us, if you will. It's about our present and basic material needs, what Jesus calls our daily bread. In both the large and small catechism, written by the German theologian Martin Luther back in the 15th and 16th centuries, this phrase daily bread, he kind of expounds on it a little bit to give us his thoughts about what Jesus might have meant by that two-word phrase daily bread. Martin Luther wrote this: everything included in the necessities and nourishment of our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright members in the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. It just shows you the riches, the depth of what Martin Luther thought Jesus meant by daily bread. I love both the specificity and the broad range of the ways Luther interpreted daily bread. And it really reminds me that we can recognize God as the source of virtually everything we need in our daily lives. It really helps us gain a biblical view of ourselves and of God. It reminds us that we are contingent beings for every moment of every day, all of our lives, we are never not needy. And if you think that's not you, you think you got this, whatever, whatever, all God would have to do is turn off gravity or turn off oxygen around our planet. We are all completely dependent and needy in so many ways. And so it's a good thing for us to be reminded of that from time to time. Give us this day our daily bread. We remain constantly aware of our total and utter dependence on God for the smallest and the largest essentials of life. No matter what our station in life is, no matter how little we may have or how much we may have, no matter what we've accumulated or what we've accomplished, we're always needy before God and upon God. We will never become self-sufficient, and it's good for us to know that. I have to admit that sometimes I would like to have some weekly bread, maybe some monthly bread, or even some yearly bread, and you kind of get the picture. I think you get the idea. I'd like to hedge my bets and feel like I've got a little more sort of control over things. And maybe I've got enough stored up, if you will, or stockpiled that I can kind of rest on what I've put together. I'd like to hedge my bets, feel a little more secure and in charge. Um, and maybe you're that way too. But this is why this line of the Lord's Prayer is so important. It's so good for us, isn't it? Praying for daily bread means living with an awareness of my daily dependence on God. And the more I think about it, I don't think there's a better place, a more freeing place for us to be. It humbles us, that's true. It can be unsettling to have to trust God daily. But Jesus invites us to both believe and to trust in our Father who art in heaven for our daily bread. This is what it means to walk in a dynamic relationship with God. I like the way Paul Tripp said it in his book Dangerous Calling. He said, No one celebrates the presence and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ more than the person who has embraced his desperate and daily need of it. And I think he's right there. He's talking about grace, he's talking about our relationship with Jesus, but I think the same thing applies here when we start talking about daily bread and being dependent on God. There is this dynamic every single day awareness of our dependence uh on God, and that's good for us. Trusting God might seem a bit risky for some of us from time to time. And uh we might have questions like can God hear us when we when we pray? Can God hear us when we are um insecure about the future, um, when we're crying for help, crying out to him for help, or we need wisdom, or whatever it might be that we have need of. Um, will God respond to our prayers for daily bread in those categories? And yes, Jesus invites us to trust in the God who hears and will respond. This is why it's really critically important for us to know who and what it is that we're praying to, um, and and the object of our prayers is that it's not just wishful thinking, but that we're actually trusting the God who is there. Jesus invites us to pray to our Father in heaven, the one who created everything that exists, the same one who set and holds Orion's belt in place up the night sky, same one who manages the entire universe, the one who has his eye upon the sparrow is watching over each one of his little creatures, including you and me. He can do all of that at the same time, then this God of the Bible can certainly take care of my daily bread and your daily bread.

unknown 7:33

D.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

L. Moody once said, some people think that God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The only way to trouble God, Moody said, is not to come at all. I think he's right. And Moody goes on to say, he encourages us to come to him repeatedly and press our claims. That's what God would like for you to do. Keep coming to him. See him as your father who loves for his children to come to him. And uh Moody, that 19th-century uh evangelist and author, I think, was spot on in that. So here's the simple, straightforward promise of the New Testament to the believers in the ancient church at Philippi. This is the Apostle Paul writing. He says, verse uh chapter four, verse 19, and my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. So this God of the Bible is personal, accessible, available, approachable, aware, capable, and responsive to his children. God intends to prove himself faithful to meet the needs of those who are in Christ Jesus, and he never runs out of resources. Why? Because it's according to his riches in glory. In other words, God never runs out of his ability to be faithful to meet your needs and take care of you. Your father knows what you need before you ask him. He's neither ignorant so that we need to instruct him, nor is he hesitant so that we need to persuade him. This is John Stott's quote, which I love so much. Um, he is our father, a father who loves his children and knows all about their needs. Yeah. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that we will come to see you, Jesus, as the bread of life that we so desperately need. And that we'll come to know the peace and assurance that comes from trusting you as our daily bread and for our daily needs in all of those categories that we talked about and mentioned uh earlier, Lord. I pray for each and every one of us that our first inclination will be to turn to you, to lift up the empty hands of faith and to pray, Lord, for you to pour out your blessings upon us to meet our basic needs. Yes, Lord, to provide wisdom where we need it, um, sustenance, and also, Lord, that you might in some way use us to meet the needs of others, that we might join you in your mission in this world in which we live. That it isn't just about us stockpiling our greeds, but meeting the needs of others as well, Lord, um, that we might glorify the name of Jesus in whose name we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you. Read ahead, or pray ahead, I guess I should say, in the Lord's Prayer. Try to make that a daily habit before your feet hit the floor. Say the Lord's Prayer each and every day.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Thanks for listening to today's study. Take a moment to leave a review and share this episode with friends and family. You can stay connected by signing up for our newsletter or follow us on social media. At the Village Chapel, we believe God's word is unique in its source, timeless in its truth, broad in its reach, and transforming in its power. For more resources or to support our ministry, visit our website, the Villagechapel.com.