eDevotion
Encouragement for your daily walk with God
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He told them to ask the Father for “daily bread.” I can’t remember ever asking God for bread. To be honest, many of my prayers are requests to Him for self-discipline to avoid eating too much bread! The point of praying for bread in Matthew 6:11 is not merely about food, but a strong statement about our dependency on God. It is to acknowledge that all of life’s necessities are part of His loving provision.
Unfortunately, some Christ followers pray only as a means of self-fulfillment. A person stopped attending the church I pastor after telling me that I wasn’t fulfilling my obligation as a minister to teach people that they should “demand things from God.”
I have chosen a different path in that regards. I find great joy in allowing God the right to glorify Himself by meeting my needs in whatever manner He pleases—whatever glorifies Him [see John 14:13].
David G. Myers said it best in his book The Human Puzzle (1978): "Some petitionary prayers seem not only to lack faith in the inherent goodness of God but also to elevate humankind to a position of control over God. God, the Scriptures remind us, is omniscient and omnipotent, the sovereign ruler of the universe. For Christians to pray as if God were a puppet whose strings they yank with their prayers seems not only potentially superstitious but blasphemous as well.
"When prayer is sold as a device for eliciting health, success, and other favors from a celestial vending machine, we may wonder what is really being merchandised. Is this faith or is it faith's counterfeit, a glib caricature of true Christianity?"
So pray for your “daily bread.” As a Christ follower you’ve been invited to approach the almighty God and receive of His bountiful, gracious provision. But be sure to guard your words! When you pray, keep His glory as your highest goal.
Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11
Amen!
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