A colorful plaque on the wall in our dining room reads: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread. I placed it in the room where we eat because we typically associate bread with a meal. But there are so many other areas of life where we can ask God to give us what we need for this day.
Especially helpful during a morning devotional time is to ask God to bless our day or help us through a difficult day.
We read many places in the Bible where God wants us to take life one day at a time.
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During Jesus’ ministry on earth, he was continuously teaching and mentoring his twelve disciples. Prayer is an essential part of the Christian life so the disciples often observed Jesus praying. One day the disciples asked him to teach them how to pray.
Matthew 6:9-13, referred to as the “Lord’s Prayer,” is Jesus’ response to his disciples and to us on how we should pray. Many have memorized this prayer often recited in church and use it as a model for prayer. Luke 11:2-4 also has an abbreviated version.
“In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Matt. 6:9-13 NKJV
In verse 11, Jesus was referencing the daily bread, “manna from heaven,” God sent each day to meet the needs of the Israelites for food as they wandered in the desert. That the God of Israel could provide daily food for them was a confirmation that he was watching over them and guiding their life both physically and spiritually.
Jesus emphasizes this point in John 6:32 NKJV, Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.”
Jesus then referred to himself as the living bread, “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:33 NKJV
Next, Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35 NKJV
By emphasizing in Matthew 6:11 that we ask God to give us bread only for “this day,” Jesus was referencing the biblical history the disciples would know that God only sent the Israelites enough manna for each day. He wanted them to have confidence that there would be just enough for one day and he would rain down more the next day. If they tried to horde extra, it spoiled. They needed to trust him for their daily provision.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” Ex. 16:4-5 NKJV
Moses also reminded the people that spiritual food is as vital to life as physical food.
So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Deut. 8:3 NKJV
Jesus referred to Deuteronomy 8:3 in Matthew 4:4 NKJV when he spoke of spiritual bread. But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
When we’re sick or going through a financial or personal problem, we want answers for the future, now. How is it all going to turn out? What can we do to change things? Maybe we have enough to get by today, but what about tomorrow and the next day? We ask God to show us his plans and assure us that we’ll be fine. It’s all going to work out okay.
Matthew 6:25-27 is one of Jesus’ famous lessons about worrying about the next day.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
Still, we worry until we learn how to turn each day’s needs over to God in prayer and trust that he has everything under control. Here are 4 ‘give us this day’ prayers we can lift up to God:
Dear Father, You know our needs before we even ask but still you tell us we have not because we ask not. So Lord, I’m asking you to provide for my needs, maybe not my wants, but enough. Show me what I must do to work with you to obtain what’s sufficient for this day. These are scary times when the shelves at stores are emptying and we might not be able to provide anticipated gifts for Christmas.
Lord, could this be your way of helping us focus on the true meaning of Christmas?! Remembering that it’s not about how many gifts we give, but the gospel message we share with people who are more open to hearing about the gift of Jesus at this time of year.
Please help me not to panic and start hording and hiding away food and supplies. It didn’t work for the Israelites with their hording manna for more than a day and it won’t help for me to take from others who might need provisions more than I do. Guide me into prudent buying and give me wisdom to discern between a want and a need.
Thank you, Holy Father, for the abundance you’ve poured down on a country that seldom gives you the glory. Let me be the voice that says I have enough for this day and I want to take time to enjoy and appreciate the Lord’s provision for my loved ones and me.
Everyday give me a heart of generosity to give to those who might not be as fortunate as I am. I praise you Lord for your abounding love and grace to all those who love you. Amen.
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Heavenly Father, you see from your throne in heaven the chaos and crises befalling our world. A world that is rejecting your moral values and principles. How this must break your heart. Lord, it breaks my heart, and sometimes I lose my peace and am filled with anxiety when each new day brings more discouraging governmental decisions. It seems like evil rules instead of you.
Please help me wake up in the morning with a sense of peace when I look out the window and see all that you’ve created and the sun has risen again on a new day. Remind me to thank you each night for another day of life.
When my thoughts wander to worrying, bring me back this day to remembering John 14:27 where Jesus assures us, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Amen.
Dear God, I’ll admit that I’m not joyful each new day. I want to be because I feel better physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I need to smile and laugh more but I look in the mirror and see frown lines on my face. More importantly, Father, I need your joy to fill my heart and soul. Please help me to laugh. Give me a daily dose of joy.
I know your Word tells me that joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit, as is the peace I so desperately crave. Just knowing you, Lord, should fill my heart with bubbling over joy. Please help me this day to put a gospel song in my heart and a kick in my step that draws others to the joy of knowing the Jesus they see in me.
Fill me anew this day with your Holy Spirit. Your living water. Your hope. Your peace. Remind me that the joy of the Lord is my strength (Neh. 8:10)! “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:12). Amen.
Precious Lord, I give this day to you trusting you will not give me more than I can bear but will always give me just what I need to stand up under any adversity. Father, I know that the foundation of my faith is trust in you in every way and every day. Trust is believing in what I cannot see but knowing that you see all and only want the best for me.
Lord, it’s a constant daily process of turning all of my life, not just portions of it, over to you completely. Giving up control when I want to do things my way. I need you to remind me when I’m falling off course or trying to do things on my own. Each day unfolds with new challenges and opportunities and I must seek you moment by moment in making decisions and choices.
Keep this song in my heart: Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
I see clearly now that you are my source of provision, peace, and joy and I implore you dear Lord, help me to trust in you and you alone this day and every day. Amen
We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, or for that matter even the rest of today. But God tells us he has numbered each of our days. While we’re here on earth, he knows the plans he has for us. So it’s only fitting that we would turn this day and each new day over to him to guide and lead us in what we say and do. How we feel and hope. How we respond and react. How we love and let love.
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!” Lam. 3:23-24 NLT
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