Thoughts on The Lord's Prayer: Daily Bread

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever.

Amen

If we have been in church for more than a few years, we know the Lord’s Prayer by heart and often recite it by rote.  Lately I’ve been thinking about the different parts in the prayer and I wanted to share my thoughts on the part in the prayer where we say “Give us this day our daily bread”.   

Most of us in Australia, have several days’ worth of food in our pantries or freezers so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to ask God to give us food for today, when we already have enough for today, tomorrow and into next week in the cupboard. 

I reckon asking God for ‘daily bread’ means asking God to spend time with us, to hang out and to share life with us.    And I also reckon that is what God wants too, or otherwise he wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble to put those lines in the Lord’s Prayer.  Right through the Bible God talks about his desire to spend time with us and to lavish his love upon us. 

When you spend time with God every day, it changes how you view church.  Church no longer means an hour or so a week focusing on God but instead, our gathering turns into a celebration of the past week with our God and encouragement for the week ahead, to keep on keeping on, to continue meeting with God and enjoying being in his presence.

What do you think?