Luke 11:1-3
11 Now Jesus[a] was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread,[b]
We have seen so far that our prayer lives focus around the fact that God is God. Because of this, we pray for things within His character, things within His purposes for us as first principles. But, God is still God. He has GREAT POTENTIAL!! In Ephesians 3 Paul says God is able to exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we can ask or imagine. We need to expect this and ask for God to show us this all of the time!!!
And we find ourselves invited to His presence to talk about life!! In today’s passage we see repetition, that means emphasis. We see a powerful historical reference and we finally get around to talking about our stuff.
Repetition: Each day, daily…
- A Daily Invitation to Prayer
- Prayers for this day
To me I see opportunity in this and the main opportunity I see is the opportunity to connect with God. Every. Single. Day.
If Jesus instructs us to daily pray for daily bread, which is what I see here, then we can connect with God about our lives on a daily basis. This is the potential for a real relationship. That means that prayer is meant to bring the invisible God into focus.
And it means that if we don’t see God in our lives we can start to work on that by setting aside time to pray on a daily basis.
I Thes 5: 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
Before we ask God for what we perceive our needs to be, we need to realize this about God.
- God knows what you need
Matt 6: 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
God knows what you need, do you? It’s a good question. If God knows what I need, why should I continue to pray? Well, why do you talk to family members? Why do you talk with co-workers? Why do you talk with a spouse? For relationship. For partnership. For love.
- Pray for the processes of life
Daily bread is regular bread. To pray daily means to work on the regular things that provide what we need.
This is the individual fish vs. learning to fish analogy. And we are not talking about fishing, we are talking about what we each need individually to give us abundant life.
I Thes 5: 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
Ok, so we have an invitation to pray daily for life daily and to connect to God and His provision of life for us daily! Let’s look at the historical reference:
- Daily Bread
This is an incredibly powerful historical reference! Give “Us” “Our”. They got theirs…
- Daily bread: what is it? What is the historical reference to daily bread? Who got bread daily and what did it mean, because we are going to ask for ours!!
The shortest answer is manna. And what is the purpose of manna? To give life for that day!!
Exodus 16: The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
Deuteronomy 8: Man does not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
For the Israelites, certainty of death is better than the uncertainty of life! Open ended problems are hard, but they are what really gives us a place to build our faith. The issue is life and what is provided to give us life.
- Manna is a “whatness”
A “whatness” is a witness that God is provider.
It came every day.
But it only came for that day!
The word manna means “What is it?” That is a profound word! Why? Because what God provides for our lives we often don’t recognize.
It takes faith to see God in action in our lives and if we don’t take God at His word as our provider then we think that He is not at work if things aren’t going just as planned. And from my perspective, things rarely go as planned.
And God gives them food that they do not work for. What God does, they DO NOT do! But they don’t know what it is. They know the food of Egypt.
(There is a metaphor about all spiritual disciplines here!)
They don’t know the food of God. They don’t know how to really have life! God provides it and the way He provides it leads them to what they really need for life and that is NOT the manna, it is following His instructions.
Exodus 16
13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’”
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little.18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
19 Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
21 Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. 22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of sabbath rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’”
24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. 25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today.26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
27 Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. 28 Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? 29 Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
31 The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’”
33 So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.”
- Manna is what God gives us for life
That is a lot of different things. God provides you with lots of things that you may not know what they are that are providing you with life. They are manna. You get what you need for today. Apply faith to the God of your circumstances and you will find life!
III. Jesus is Our Daily Bread of Life
Just like the Jews were to transition to praying in Jesus’ name, so the Jews are to transition to seeing Jesus, and getting life from Jesus as their daily bread!
John 6: 25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then 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.
Whoever comes to me. What does that mean? Well there are two great answers. The first one is found in verse 29. We are to believe in Jesus. To believe in Him means we accept Who He is and What He came to do. He is the Son of God, the second person of the trinity, the creator of all that is and the way, the truth and the life.
What did He come to do? Well, if we understand manna from the Old Testament, then we understand Jesus too. He is what God has given us for life for today. How will this work? Look at the great invitation in the Gospel of Matthew.
Matt 11:
16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17 “‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
20 Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.[e] For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
- Come to Jesus for life
Restoration of our created place. We are meant for a certain type of life, it is messed up in the curse and Jesus is gonna resolve it all!
John 3:16 Everlasting life
John 10:10 Abundant life
John 7: 37-39 The Holy Spirit as an eternal living source of life
John 14:6 The Way the Truth and the Life
- Take my yoke upon you
Two oxen teams. A young ox with a mature one. The yoke is the burden of life. If the two pull together, the burden is lessened considerably. The young one will pull way hard and get tired our. The mature one submits to the yoke and the direction of the one driving the plow. This is what the young one needs to know. This is what Jesus knows and has demonstrated and teaches us! This is more than instruction, this is partnership. This is relationship. This is not “Your” yoke, it is Jesus’ yoke. Jesus offers His yoke for your life, His partnership for your life. Daily bread!
- Learn from Jesus’ teachings and example
The weary and heavy laden find Jesus to be humble and gentle. They find rest for their souls in submission to God. They give up trying to drive life on their own and the join Jesus in His yoke. It is as we follow the teachings of Jesus that we trust Him. There is no faith apart from this. And as we follow the teachings of Jesus, we have our daily bread. We have our daily life. Jesus promises us the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Not for our kingdom purposes, but for his. If we will fully ground ourselves in His kingdom, we can fully know Emmanuel!