Bethany Bullet - March 10, 2015

Continuation of Breathe series on Lord’s Prayer

Petition: Give us Bread

Once upon a time, Jesus told a story about giving and thus getting bread that went something like this:

‘Tis the middle of the night the lights are out and somebody’s home…but they’re in bed.  All of the sudden there is a pounding upon the door. 

“Get up.  Company has just dropped in and I haven’t been to ‘Trader Joseph’s’ – lend some bread so I can feed them before I send them to bed.” 

“…Nobody in here.” 

“I know you’re in there.”

“Well you’re worried about sending them to bed without bread; we’re already in bed and we are sleeping!”

“You’re not sleeping you’re talking to me…Please, they’ll devour the furniture if you don’t help me.”

“…Kinda like your goat devoured my garden the other day?”

“I’m sorry but I need help.” 

“…Kinda like I did when the wheel on the cart was broken. . .”

“Sorry again, but I really did need to go to the well. Honest. Please, I need some bread.” 

The door opens. 

“Not because I’m happy you’re my neighbor, not because I like you, not because I care if your guests turn on you, but because I want to get some sleep.”

“How much more” is the point of Jesus’ story! 

If the neighbor was willing to get the requester to be quiet and leave, How Much More does God delight to welcome and listen?  If the neighbor was willing to help so he could return to that about which he cared – sleeping, How Much More does God desire to give good gifts.  

Of course, Jesus didn’t leave the story there. 

“Which of you, if your child asks for an egg would give him a scorpion or should they ask for a fish give them a snake?”  Jesus intensified the force of the tale by moving from proximity (relationship between neighbors) to family (relationship between Father and children). 

As children come to Him and ask for that which you need (though your Father knows what you need before you ask); here Jesus teaches us to pray for those things that dominate our life, for the most part.  Even before we pray for absolution from heaven (forgive us), we ask for provision on earth (daily bread).

In that prayer, we show we rely on God for everything good.  In that prayer, we show we know that He will supply us as He knows is best. 

Daily bread consists of that which we put into the body as well as that which we place on the body.  Daily bread includes things from doors to lock and beds in which to sleep (like the story).  Daily bread is both the cupboard and fridge and the items therein for family and unexpected midnight guests alike (Jesus story again). 

Enjoying our daily bread is a natural enterprise; recognizing our daily bread as a gift from God is a spiritual exercise that the Lord Jesus asks us to pray becomes our own. At the same time we pray He provides us our own allotment of daily bread.

-Pastor Kevin Kritzer