Latest / Reformed Thinking / Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: Divine Providence and Daily Dependence (Matthew 6:11)

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Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: Divine Providence and Daily Dependence (Matthew 6:11) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to the Deep Dive. This is our show for Reformed
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thinking, where we really try to get into the details, digging
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into sources and context to understand key subjects.
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Today we're focusing on a line from the prayer Jesus taught his
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followers. It's a line so, so familiar that
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I think we often just glide right past it.
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Give us this day Our Daily Bread.
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And our mission here really is to get behind that familiarity.
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We want to show you how this one simple sounding petition is
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actually a kind of spiritual diagnostic tool, how it exposes
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these core sins that hide in our hearts, things like pride and
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anxiety and even greed. And how it trains the believer,
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it actively trains us. In this posture of well, present
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tense dependence on God, our sources really ground this whole
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thing in divine Providence and of course, the work of Christ.
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It seems like it's the most practical, almost the most down
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to earth request in the whole prayer.
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It is, but it's structured in a way that forces you to confront
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your highest theological beliefs.
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I mean, on the surface you're just asking for food, but when
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you look at the grammar, the history behind it, you realize
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Christ is teaching a whole way of life.
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A total posture of Christian existence.
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You called. It right It's designed to
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dismantle this illusion we all have that we're self-sufficient.
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OK, let's unpack that. And I think we have to start
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with the structure because it seems like how you're told to
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ask is just as critical as what we're asking for.
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Let's start with the very first word the command give.
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In the Greek, the word is dus. Grammatically speaking, it's
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what's called an A orist imperative verb.
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An imperative SO command. A command?
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Yes. A direct, confident instruction.
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That sounds, well, that sounds pretty bold.
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I mean, if I were approaching a king, I don't think I'd use an
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imperative verb. I'd be a lot more hesitant, you
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know, hoping for mercy. And that's the tension, right?
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But the context completely resolves it, because this
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command is addressed to our father and that transforms its
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function. It stops being a demand from
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someone who is owed something. It becomes the trusting, even
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bold plea of a child who knows they're dependent.
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The sources really highlight this durality.
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Tell me a bit more about that duality.
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Well, on one hand it's genuine boldness.
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We're invited, commanded even, to come to God and ask for what
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we need. It's an open door.
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But on the other hand, it's incredibly humble.
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How so? By using that one word dose
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give, we are confessing something.
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We're confessing that without the Father's gracious action,
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without his this provision, we would have nothing, we'd perish.
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I can see how that immediately challenged the way we think,
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especially in the West. We connect food, income, all of
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that with our own effort. I work, I earn, I buy my food.
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We see our bank account as something we're owed for our
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hard work. Exactly.
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Not something that's given to us.
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And the grammar gets right at that tension.
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This petition reminds us that even our hard work, our skills,
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our success, it's all received as a gift.
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It's not a debt that God owes us so.
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Even the ability to work as a gift.
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The breath in your lungs to do the work.
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The health that lets you show up.
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The stable economy that provides the job in the first place.
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All of that is God's prior action.
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So when we stand before him and say dose give, we're admitting
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we are fundamentally receivers. We're not the source of our own
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survival. OK, let's move to the second
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grammatical point here, because this one I think is a huge
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challenge to our individualistic culture.
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The pronoun give us this day, Our Daily Bread.
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Yes, the plural. It's non negotiable.
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The Greek word for us is haman, and it's so foundational here.
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Jesus deliberately structured this prayer to fight against
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this idea of a private, isolated religion.
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We're never told to pray. Give me my daily bread.
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Never. That would make faith just a
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private transaction between you and God, and that's not what's
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being taught here. So it immediately shifts your
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focus. It pulls you out of this bubble
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of private devotion and into what a kind of corporate,
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covenantal way of thinking. That's a great way to put it.
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It situates you as a member of a much larger body, the household
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of faith. There is a quiet ecclesiology, a
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doctrine of the Church built right into the grammar.
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So the community of believers is defined not just by what we
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believe, but by this shared mutual responsibility.
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Exactly when you pray this, you're praying alongside and on
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behalf of your brothers and sisters, confessing A collective
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need, a group dependence on the one Father.
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OK, but let's make this practice.
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Why does the plural us carry so much ethical weight?
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I mean, if I'm doing OK and my family is fed, why does this
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prayer burden me with my brother's lack?
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Because it convinced you of what the sources call individualistic
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indifference. If you pray for provision for us
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while you're totally unconcerned about other members of the body
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of Christ who don't have enough, well, your prayer becomes
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hypocritical. So you're asking the Father to
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provide? But you are refusing to be the
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channel for that provision. You're functionally damning up
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the flow of God's grace that he might want to send through you.
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That's a sharp point. It forces you to examine
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yourself. If I pray for the community's
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provision, but then I just hoard my own surplus or just ignore a
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need that's right in front of me, I'm basically saying I don't
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believe in the US I just prayed for.
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Absolutely. The plural S obligates the
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church to practice real benevolence, hospitality,
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sacrificial generosity. It's why in the early church,
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you see in Acts, we were so quick to share everything.
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Their prayer life bled directly into their economic life.
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They understood that the Father's provision was for the
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whole family. Exactly.
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The analogy becomes really clear.
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We're not managing a private bank account when we pray, we're
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looking at a family budget. That's it.
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A private bank account is all about my security, my
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accumulation. A family budget considers the
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needs of the whole house under the father's provision.
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You can't pray for the family's well-being and then secretly
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siphon off the money for your own luxuries.
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The second you pray us, you've signed up for mutual
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responsibility. It's a complete takedown of
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self-centered consumerism, and it's hidden in a tiny little 2
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letter word. Right.
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So moving from who is receiving it us to what we're actually
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asking for bread, the Greek noun is arcton.
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And as you said, this is way more than just a loaf of
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sourdough. Right.
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The sources are clear that bread here is a figure of speech, a
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synec decay. That's where a part stands in
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for the whole. So bread is basically shorthand
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for all the fundamental necessity of bodily life.
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And how far does that shorthand go?
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Is it just food and water? No, not at all.
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Jesus himself broadens the scope later in Matthew 6 when he talks
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about food and drink and clothing.
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So when we ask for Arton, we're really asking for all the
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concrete material things we need to exist.
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Shelter, health, the ability to work, even the strength to do
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that work. It's an admission that every
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single physical need we have comes from the.
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Father it is, and it's also a powerful theological check.
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A check against what? Against any kind of thinking
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that despises the physical world.
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That's been a recurring error in church history, this idea that
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the material world is bad and we're just souls waiting to
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escape. Gnosticism.
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Right. Basically, yeah.
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This prayer says no. It affirms the goodness of the
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physical body. We are embodied creatures.
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Our physical needs are real and God cares about them.
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Praying for food validates creation and God's Providence
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over our mundane belly level needs.
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So bread is everything we need to live, but the specific choice
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of the word bread, a staple food that also seems to place a limit
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on what we're asking for it, doesn't it?
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It does, and it's a very deliberate restraint on our
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desires. We're told to ask for bread, a
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staple. Not for a feast, not for
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delicacies, not for a huge surplus.
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It draws a sharp line between what we need and what we just
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greedily. Want so the prayer is designed
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to maintain life, not to fuel our indulgence.
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Exactly. Sustenance and function, not
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endless self enrichment. OK, now we get to what might be
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the most debated word in the whole petition daily.
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The Greek adjective is epiosan. The sources all say this word is
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incredibly rare. Why is that?
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Why is there so much debate around?
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It It's so rare that it only appears here and in Luke's
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version of the prayer. It seems to have been either
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coined specifically for this prayer or it came from some very
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obscure dialect. Scholars have been arguing about
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it for centuries and. What are the main camps in that
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argument? Well, there are two main
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interpretations. The first is that it means
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necessary for existence or simply sufficient.
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That would fit perfectly with the idea of asking for bread for
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a basic sustenance. It does.
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It would mean we're asking for bread that is efficient for
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life. The other reading, though, is
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for the coming day or for tomorrow.
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And that's where the debate gets interesting.
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Why? What's the issue with that?
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Some of the early church fathers like Origen and Jerome were
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worried about that. They thought if it just meant
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physical bread for tomorrow, it was too focused on the temporary
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world. So they actually preferred a
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more spiritualized reading, translating it as super
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substantial. As in bread for the soul.
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Something like that, yes, the bread of the life to come.
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But no matter which exact definition you land on, it seems
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like the context of the prayer as a whole forces it into one
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particular function. Precisely, the sources argue.
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The contextual function is really clear.
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It links our request to the immediate horizon of need.
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It's designed to train our hearts towards sufficiency, not
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surplus. And that's the key point.
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It calibrates the heart to ask for enough.
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Enough to get through right now. It fights that deep human urge
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to build a giant warehouse and insulate ourselves from ever
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needing to ask God again. It Yanks us out of the world of
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abstract 10 year financial plans and into this concrete, moment
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by moment dependence. Our security is supposed to be
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in the Father's faithfulness, not in the size of our savings
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account. And that leads right into the
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second time based constraint. The phrase this day the Greek is
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semoran. So if epiagen defines the amount
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just enough, semoran defines the timing.
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Yes, Semoran anchors the whole request firmly in the present
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tense and answers the question when today we're commanded to
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ask for today's provision today. This is so critical because it
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stops us from trying to live on yesterday's grace.
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And this is where the prayer really acts as a powerful tool
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against sinful anxiety. Because what is worry, really?
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It's a desire for autonomous control over an unknown future.
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It's trying to carry burdens God hasn't given you yet.
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By restricting the request to this day, Jesus is commanding us
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to set down those imagined futures.
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Let me push back on that, though, because in the modern
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world that can sound, well, reckless.
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We have to plan mortgages, retirement, college for our
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kids. Are the sources saying that kind
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of prudent financial planning is sinful?
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That's a great question, and a necessary one.
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The sources are careful to make a distinction.
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The prayer doesn't forbid prudence or planning.
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Scripture itself tells us to work hard and provide for our
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families. So what's the difference?
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The difference is the source of our security planning is just
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using the means God has provided.
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Anxiety is trusting in those means instead of in God the
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provider. So the anxious heart says my
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plan has to work or I'm ruined. Exactly.
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The anxious heart functionally trusts the stock market or the
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career path or the bank account more than the living God.
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This prayer attacks that functional unbelief.
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It forces us to stand here today and admit our immediate
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dependence. OK, so this brings us to that
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analogy you mentioned, comparing EPI, ocean and semoran to a
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daily ration pack. Right.
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It's enough for today's mission. It keeps you alive, it keeps you
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functional. But you can't stockpile it for
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five years. It forces you to trust that the
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supply line will be there again tomorrow morning.
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It insists that God's faithfulness is something you
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experience daily because our dependence is daily.
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It's the spiritual discipline of living, in a sense, paycheck to
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paycheck, even if you're wealthy.
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Not financially, but spiritually.
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Now, the Lord's Prayer isn't creating this idea out of thin
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air. It's tapping into a pattern of
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provision that runs all through the Bible.
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That's right. This is a foundational theme.
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You see it right from the very beginning in Eden.
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In Eden, yes, food was already there before Adam and Eve
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started their work. The garden was fruitful.
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They were put there to work and keep it, But they were never the
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source of their own life. They were established as
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receivers from the very start. So even before the fall, eating
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was a confession of dependence. It was, and even after the Fall,
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the rhythm of seed time and harvest is upheld by God's
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covenant faithfulness, not just by human cleverness.
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But the main story, the archetype that really defines
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what daily bread means, has to be the man of In the Wilderness,
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Exodus 16. That is the perfect case study.
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Israel leaves Egypt, they're in the desert, and what's the first
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thing that happens? They get hungry and their
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unbelief comes pouring out. So God responds by feeding them
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with manna, this bread from heaven.
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But he attaches some very strict rules.
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To it. And those rules were all about
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training their hearts right? They could only gather enough
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for that one day. That's the daily restriction.
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They were explicitly forbidden from gathering extra.
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It was a command that required daily trust.
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They had to wake up every single morning and trust the man who
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would be there and the. Story gives us this very
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visceral picture of what happens when they tried to disobey what
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the source is called the prohibition on hoarding right
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some of. Them trying to be prudent, they
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thought well God provided today, but who knows about tomorrow.
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So they stored some overnight and it went rotten.
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It was filled with worms, so. God made it functionally
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impossible to hoard. It was a.
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Direct sovereign act to break their desire for autonomy, to
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expose the unbelief that was hiding behind their stockpiling.
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It's a harsh lesson. Worms in your bread.
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But there was an exception, wasn't there?
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There was. Which makes the lesson even
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sharper. On the 6th day they were told to
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gather a double portion for the Sabbath, and that portion didn't
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spoil so the. Spoiling wasn't just natural
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decay, not at all. It was a sovereign judgement the
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manna only kept when God said it would keep.
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It taught them that their real provision wasn't in the bread
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itself, but in the Word, in command of the Lord and the
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whole. Point of This entire 40 year
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exercise is spelled out for us in Deuteronomy 8.3.
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That's the. Verse that ties it all together.
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Moses says God let them hunger and then fed them with manna to
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teach them one thing, that man does not live by bread alone,
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but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
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Physical hunger was meant to create spiritual dependence.
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This pattern. Of sufficiency over surplus also
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shows up in the wisdom literature.
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We have the prayer of a Gore in Proverbs 30.
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A fantastic. Example Agura praise for this
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very specific middle ground economic state, He says give me
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neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is
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needful for me, he explains. Why?
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He wants to avoid those two extremes.
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He does. Poverty might make him desperate
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and lead him to steal, dishonouring God's name.
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But riches, on the other hand, might lead to a kind of
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spiritual amnesia. He'd be tempted to say who is
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the Lord and forget his dependence entirely.
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So the middle. Ground The daily bread position
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is the safest place to be spiritually, it's enough to.
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Live enough to serve God, but not so much that you forget you
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need to ask Him again tomorrow and the last.
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Example the sources highlight is the story of Elijah and the
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widow of Zarephath in First Kings another story of provision
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and a famine that. Story shows that God's provision
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might not be lavish, but it is always unfailing.
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This widow is on the brink of death, and God sustains her and
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the prophet through a jar of flour and a jug of oil that just
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never ran out day after day. It was never.
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A full warehouse? Never.
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Every time she went to the jar, there is just enough for that
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day's meal. It's a picture of God's perfect,
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precise, daily faithfulness. So when we.
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Put all of that together, we get the blueprint for this petition
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and you can contrast the modern impulse.
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You know, the survivalist in bunker stockpiling against every
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disaster, trusting only in his supplies with the image of a
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small child at a family dinner. The survivalist is drowning in
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anxiety and stuff. The child has no power, no
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reserves, but sits at the table with 0 anxiety because they just
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trust their parent will provide the meal today and tomorrow.
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That's the. Faith Jesus is commanding.
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It completely redefines what prudence means.
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Prudence isn't the size of your portfolio.
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It's knowing that God is your security and.
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All of this history, Eden, the manna, the prophets, it all
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seems to be preparing us for Christ himself.
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He takes this request for physical bread and just
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completely elevates it. He does He.
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Reorients it entirely, and the clearest place we see this is in
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John chapter 6 right after he feeds the 5000, which of course
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is a miracle that deliberately echoes the Manny in the
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wilderness and the crowds. Come looking for him the next
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day, not because they want to hear him teach, but because they
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want another free meal. Exactly.
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And Jesus rebukes them for it. He says don't work for the food
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that smoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life.
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And then he declares I him the bread of life.
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So the very Christ who tells us to pray for physical bread is
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himself the true bread that the prayer is pointing to, right?
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The request. For artin isn't thrown out, but
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it's reoriented. It's put in its proper place.
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Our physical hunger is meant to be a signpost pointing to our
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deeper spiritual hunger for Christ and Jesus.
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Himself is the perfect model of this daily bread spirituality.
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He never uses his divine power to get around his human
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dependence. Think about his.
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Temptation in the wilderness. He's starving, and Satan tempts
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him to turn stones into bread, to use his divine power to
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satisfy his human hunger, and he refuses.
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He refuses. And he quotes that key verse
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from Deuteronomy. Man does not live by bread
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alone. He lived out the perfect
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dependence on the Father that Israel failed to live out in the
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desert. So we as.
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Believers are invited into that same kind of filial dependence
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that the Sun had. We are, and that dependence
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gives us incredible confidence because our assurance when we
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pray this isn't based on our own goodness or effort.
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It's grounded in Christ's redemptive work.
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OK. Let's talk about that redemptive
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grounding. How does the gospel secure our
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confidence in getting daily bread?
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The logic is straight out of Romans 8.32.
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It's an argument from the greater to the lesser.
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Paul says if God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for
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us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give
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us all things? So if the Father.
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Gave us the greatest possible gift his son.
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We can be absolutely sure he'll give us the lesser gifts we need
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for life, like food and shelter. That's the.
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Logic. Christ's death secures the
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Father's unchanging favor toward us.
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God is not stingy. His greatest gift proves His
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endless generality. That really.
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Cuts the legs out from under the anxiety that God might be
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holding out on us. It does.
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The question of whether God will provide for my body today is
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already answered by the fact that He provided for my soul for
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eternity at infinite cost to Himself and finally this.
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Petition also points us forward. It creates a kind of
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eschatological longing. It does.
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In two main ways. 1st through the Lord's Supper, the
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Sacramento bread is a visible sign of Christ's body given for
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us, and we take it regularly, confessing our dependence until
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he comes. And the second.
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Way. Every time we feel physical
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hunger and pray for physical bread, it's meant to be a
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foretaste of future glory. It should fuel our longing for
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the Mayor's Supper, the Lamb, that final great feast.
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We're all hunger and want and need are gone forever.
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Our daily hunger reminds us of our deepest spiritual hunger,
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which will only be fully satisfied when we see Christ.
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OK. So let's synthesize this through
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the lens of Reformed theology. The central doctrine holding
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this all together has to be divine Providence.
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It's the whole premise. Of the prayer, the idea that God
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not only created everything, but actively upholds, directs,
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disposes and governs all creatures, actions and things so
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when we. Ask for bread.
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We're confessing that every single factor the rain, the sun,
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a stable economy, our own ability to get out of bed and
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work, it's not just random chance.
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It's all a specific, intentional gift from a personal father,
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right? His governance is total, but
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it's also intimate. He works through what we call
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ordinary means, farming, commerce, our jobs.
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But he's never limited by them. If God were to withdraw His
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sustaining grace, every system we rely on would collapse in an
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instant. This.
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Petition also forces us to have a correct view of ourselves, a
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correct anthropology. It's a daily dose of humility,
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it. Defines us as fundamentally
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dependent creatures, and that's a status that never changes.
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No matter how successful or wealthy we become, the richest
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person on earth still depends on God for their next breath.
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The prayer forces us to acknowledge that reality.
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And what does that say? About prayer itself, it shows.
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Us that prayer is the appointed way that we as creatures receive
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what God has already purposed to give.
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God ordains the end our provision, and He also ordains
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the means, which is our asking. So prayer isn't some magic lever
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we pull to make God do something.
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It's a vital part of His plan to cultivate dependence and
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relationship with us. OK, let's get.
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Back to this core idea of the prayer as a spiritual diagnostic
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tool. The sources use that great
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analogy of a diet contrast in a medical scan, right the dye.
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Flows through your veins and lights up any hidden blockages.
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In the same way, the simple request give us this day Our
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Daily Bread. It flows through our hearts and
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it highlights the spiritual blockages, the subtle sicknesses
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we might not even know are there.
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So let's name. Some of them first sin exposed
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self-reliance and pride, the illusion of autonomy.
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This is a huge one in our culture.
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Huge. This prayer is a direct assault
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on the pride that whispers my power and the might of my hand
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have gotten me this wealth. It exposes the foolishness of
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acting like we're self originating sustainers.
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We look at our skills, our savings, our investments, and we
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see them as the source of our security, not as the temporary
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means of God's care. Give me a real.
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World example of how that pride gets exposed OK, think about.
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How someone reacts to losing their job or a major stock
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market crash. If the immediate gut reaction is
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just utter despair, hopelessness, maybe even rage,
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that's a good sign that the pride of self-reliance has just
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been shattered. You're reacting.
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As if the true source of your life has been cut off instead
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of. Just seeing that one channel of
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provision has been rerouted by a sovereign God.
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Praying this prayer forces you to see every paycheck not as a
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trophy you earned, but as a gift you're stewarding.
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OK. Second, sin exposed sinful
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anxiety and unbelief. We touched on this with the this
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day limit. Anxiety is basically future
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tense pride we act like the burden of securing our own
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future rests entirely on our shoulders, not on gods.
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So by limiting the request to Semoron to today, the prayer
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diagnosis chronic worry as a form of functional unbelief.
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Let me be the. Voice of the listener again.
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If I'm worried about inflation or political instability
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affecting my job, isn't that just common sense?
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Why call that sinful? The line.
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Is between concern and unbelief. Concern leads you to pray and
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plan prudently. Unbelief leads you to despair
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and hoard. The anxious heart trusts in the
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stability of human institutions, governments, banks, career paths
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more than it trusts in the living God.
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So we act like. God is big enough to handle our
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eternal salvation, but not our monthly bills.
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That's the. Functional division we make the
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prayer forces us to repent of that and practice real,
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concrete, present tense trust third.
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Exposure, greed, and the idolatry of comfort.
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This one gets right to the heart of consumer culture.
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It does. The specific request for arten,
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for a staple, for what is necessary, is a constant rebuke
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to the idolatry of comfort and excess.
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Our entire culture is built on the lie that the good life is
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found in getting more, in constant upgrades, a bigger
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house. A faster car, a better vacation,
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and we're. Conditioned to see that kind of
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prosperity as a sign of goodness.
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This prayer challenges that worldview.
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It confronts our covetousness by holding us to the standard of
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modest provision of what is needful for life.
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Not all that I desire or all that my neighbor has.
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So if I'm praying for. Bread.
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But I'm sacrificing my peace and my generosity to chase after
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luxury. The prayer exposes that huge
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disconnect. It asks a.
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Simple question, are you grateful for what is needful or
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are you just restless for what is excessive and the final?
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Sin exposed, which comes from the word us, is individualistic
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indifference right the. Plural us makes it impossible to
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have a purely private religion. It won't let you ignore your
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ethical duty to share God's provision with the community,
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especially the household of faith.
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When we pray for us and then refuse to help those in need
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within that us, we're caught in hypocrisy.
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This petition. Then really wages war on some
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major modern errors. Let's just run through those
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contemporary confrontations the sources mentioned first.
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It's a sharp rebuke to prosperity teaching.
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The prayer makes it clear God promises daily modest provision
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for our needs, not guaranteed lavish abundance.
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His faithfulness is insufficiency, not necessarily
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in wealth. Second.
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It confronts materialism and consumerism.
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It calls us. To the discipline of sufficiency
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over surplus, it asks believers to look at their budgets, their
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buying habits, their goals and ask if they align with a heart
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that is content with what is needful.
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And finally. It challenges a kind of
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pragmatism we see in the church. Church pragmatism, right?
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Relying on marketing or demographics or slick human
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strategies to build a ministry reveals the same functional
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unbelief as the anxious individual.
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This prayer calls ministries to be soaked in prayer and humble
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dependence on God's provision. So.
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After all of this, we started with a simple request for food
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and we found that it's actually a blueprint for the entire
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Christian life. It's about repenting of
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self-reliance, gratefully receiving every gift, and
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actively being generous to others.
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It's the most. Ordinary request in the prayer.
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And yet it's the perfect litmus test for the health of your
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soul. And here's where.
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We want to leave you, the listener, with something to
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think about. The sources conclude that every
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time you pray for physical bread, you're actually
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expressing A deeper spiritual longing, whether you realize it
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or not. So we'd invite.
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You to consider this when you pray for your daily provision,
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are you only thinking about survival?
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Or could it be that your prayer for physical bread isn't just
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about resources, but that it's actually a rehearsal, A
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rehearsal of your deepest hunger for Christ, the true Bread of
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life, until that day when you are finally seated at the great
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feast and you're satisfied for good?