Get It Right!

Get It Right!

Give us today our daily bread. Matthew 6:11 NIV

Today's extract is part of the popular Lord's  Prayer, where the disciples of Jesus came to him, asking to be taught how to pray. The template for prayer, as taught by Jesus, is instructive for our daily lives, and today's bit is just a small part of the whole prayer. What can we learn from today's  extract? First, there is a clear and definite source for all I could ever desire. I must know who I am talking to, understand his power and might, and know He is able to do all he has promised.

When I pray, do I even know who I am talking to? Has prayer become a routine or an experience? The prayer is the Lord's prayer,  not a litany of self-accomplishments and achievements. You don't come to God blowing your trumpet; you come with a sense of awareness that this is the maker of the universe you are speaking to. Do you know him as such? Does your life acknowledge him as such?

Secondly, I must know I am the target of God's amazing love. Everything he has promised is for my benefit, and as I pray, I am acccessing the riches of the blessings held in store for me. If I do not ask, how do I access? God knows what I need, yet he longs to have me speak to Him as a child speaks to a Father, certain that EVEN IF I do not get all I want, there is a bigger thing at play, which is the Father-child relationship. And that's the  basis of the third point: it is first about ownership and possession, not acquisition. The world focuses on what it can get, and defines its value in monetary or physical terms; God defines me on the basis of my relationship with Him, and on the final analysis, this is the most important.

And note that the provision is daily, not weekly or monthly or yearly. It is a daily request, a daily relationship renewal. You never stop; you never have enough of Him. And all you need is tied to that daily provision. As much as there is pressure to look ahead into the future, God says: 'I am sufficient for today '. And that should be enough for all who know Him. Why would all of these be important: because God is first a God of relationship before anything else. He wants me to seek Him out for Him first, before what I could ever desire from Him.

So, do you know this God? Does he also know  you as his own? His time of favour is  here.