Prayers for Daily Needs

Meditation for the day taken from Everyday Prayer with John Calvin written by Donald McKim:

Scripture: Luke 11:1-4

The passage under consideration today is familiar to most. This text is the parallel passage that we find in Matt. 6. We know it as the Lord's Prayer. Traditionally the church has used this prayer as not merely a form of prayer, but one used in the corporate worship of God and quoted verbatim. It is a helpful prayer in that it teaches us much about prayer. The danger, however, is that we approach it with too much familiarity, not giving due attention to the words and meaning behind the words. Today we are considering the fourth petition (request) as given to us in Luke 11:3, "Give us this day our daily bread." The Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches us what this means and what we should meditate on as we say this portion of the prayer. We read in WSC Q104, "What do we pray for in the fourth petition? In the fourth petition, which is, Give us this day our daily bread, we pray that of God's free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them." The fact is that all that we have in this life has come from God. He is the one who blesses us with the good things of this life. As you look around and take inventory of the many earthly possession in your life, do you frequently thank God for them, knowing that he is the one who has given them to you?

As Jesus was teaching his disciples how to pray (at their request!), it is difficult not to connect the words with that act of God for the people of old as they journeyed from Egypt to their promised rest in Canaan. Each day God provided for them their daily bread in the form of manna. He gave them exactly what they needed and no more. They were not to store it or hoard it for tomorrow. Throughout this provision, God was teaching his people to trust him and to do that every day. Put another way, we are to daily ask of our Father in heaven for that which will sustain us today, knowing that our faithful God, who has provided for all that we needed yesterday, will do so again today and continue to do so tomorrow. Calvin wrote, "We are bidden to ask only as much as is sufficient for our need from day to day, with this assurance: that as our Heavenly Father nourishes us today, he will not fail us tomorrow." (84). As we pray for all that we need today, we express our dependence on a faithful God who will never fail us. Each day we must remind ourselves that we are dependent creatures in dire need of the bounty of our Father. He is faithful, and he will provide what we need today and continue to strengthen our assurance that he will do so again tomorrow.