In this last in the series on the Lord’s Prayer, we look at why we should ask for the forgiveness and sins, how we should do it and how it helps.

Why pray for the forgiveness of sins?

Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s prayer, to pray, ‘forgive us our sins…,’ but why? We can understand the necessity to pray for our daily bread, we may also understand that if we are Christians we should pray for God’s kingdom to come, but why pray for the forgiveness of our sins?

A Modern Objection:

Perhaps this is an increasingly modern question. We live in a society that does not talk much about God and also does not talk much about sin.

Instead of sin, people talk purely about right and wrong. Doing right is what makes the world a better place for everyone and doing wrong makes things worse for everyone. It is generally agreed that people should be encouraged to do what is right rather than what is wrong, but this is achieved it is thought, by better education and campaigning to make people do what is right.

The need for forgiveness from God or involving God in the process does not seem necessary. In fact many associate it with creating feelings of guilt and so lowering self-esteem. Indeed, people are increasingly offended if you tell them they are doing something wrong, possibly because they see it as undermining their sense of wellbeing by inducing some kind of guilt.

So from the perspective of many in our society praying for forgiveness is quite strange, even unhelpful.

A Theological Objection:

For some Christians there is also a theological objection. Surely, once we become a Christian, we are already forgiven. Jesus’s death on the cross has done everything necessary to secure our salvation and wash away our sins.

If we keep praying for forgiveness, aren’t we denying that we are already forgiven. Aren’t we making praying forgiveness or confessing our sins a work for our salvation, rather than accepting that we are saved by faith.

At first glance, these are powerful points to make. Yet, Jesus teaches us to pray regularly: ‘forgive us our sins.’ So, why do we need to do so, if we are already forgiven?

David’s Prayer (Psalm 51)

To help us think more carefully about both why and how we should pray for forgiveness it is good to turn to the most famous prayer for forgiveness in the Bible: Psalm 51.

David’s Sin:

This prayer comes as a result of a terrible incident in David’s life. David was very much God’s man. He had shown incredible faith from an early age and God had blessed him and raised him to become king of Israel, promising that one of David’s sons would always be on the throne. David was very much God’s man.

But then just as David was looking most secure and comfortable on the throne he did something really bad. Whist the army were off fighting in a war, he seduced the wife of Uriah, one of the soldiers away fighting for him and committed adultery with her. When Bathsheba became pregnant with his child, he tried to cover it up and when that didn’t work he had Uriah sent into the thick of the battle so that he was killed.

In anyone’s terms this was all wrong, adultery, murder and lying to cover up. What was worse, David thought he had got away with it. After all this was probably not abnormal behaviour for kings of his time and who would know?

But God saw it all and God was not happy. So, God sent the prophet Nathan to challenge David about what he had done. Suddenly, David is face with the problem of his sin.

The Problem of Sin:

Guilt – Our Inner Emotional Pain – vs. 3, 8

Firstly, as we read the Psalm we get a sense of the guilt that David was wracked with.

In verse 3, he says:

“For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is always before me.”

Then in verse 8 he talks about his bones being crushed.

The Bible in general and David in particular do not deny the oppressive power of guilt. In a sense this whole Psalm is a cry for the guilt to be removed.

In response to the oppression of guilt our non-Christian culture sees it as something bad for us that needs to be avoided. So people hate it when you challenge them about wrongdoing or they seek to blame their wrongdoing on other pressures in their lives.

Similarly, if we as Christians simply say, we are already forgiven by God and so there is no place for guilt in our lives, then we deny the reality of our ongoing struggle with sin.

Both attitudes seek to avoid the pain of guilt, but in so doing they miss out on what guilt is pushing us to do – to change to be the better people God wants us to be. If David was to do the same with his guilt, there would be every chance that he would just repeat his lies, adultery and murder.

Guilt in the short term may be a painful response to sin and if not dealt with can be very destructive. Yet, when it provokes the right response, it is a painful step in a powerfully transformative process.

God – Our Damaged Relationship – vs. 4, 11

The second problem that David sees with his sin is the damage it has done to his relationship with God. God after all had sent Nathan to challenge David about his behaviour and so David senses that he is under God’s judgement.

In verse 4, he acknowledges that God is right to judge him:

“Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.”

And in verse 11 you sense David’s fear at losing his relationship with God:

“Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”

Again our society recoil from this talk of God’s judgement. Many deny God’s existence, so that they don’t have to worry about judgement, others just like to imagine that God is not interested, does not care or will just ignore our wrongdoing.

Again, if as Christians we simply say, we are already forgiven, we can quickly dismiss any idea of God’s displeasure at our wrongdoing.

But, this too fails to deal with our sin and can damage any real relationship with God we might have. After all any good relationship has to acknowledge the hurt and upset that one person may cause to another. That is what makes the relationship real.

Praying for Forgiveness:

Praying for forgiveness, rather than avoidance of guilt and the damaged relationship with God, actually seeks to deal with our sinful behaviour, through a powerful engagement with God and a deeper dependence in faith on him.

And that is what we see David doing in this Psalm. In a sense this is a model for a powerful therapy in our lives, with God as our therapist. The more we learn to engage with this process, the more we will be truly transformed to be the kind of people God wants.

So here are five steps to dealing with the problem of sin:

1. Confident, because of God’s character – vs. 1

Firstly, we need to be confident in approaching God that he will forgive us and help us.

For David this confidence comes in verse 1, with a deep understanding of God’s character, his compassion and unfailing love.

For us as Christians, our confidence is even greater. We know he has already forgiven us. Jesus says he gave his blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. His once for all sacrifice is all that is necessary to win us forgiveness, to pay the price for our sins.

No matter what our sin we can approach God with confidence, because our sins have and will be forgiven.

2. Confess the reality of our sin – vs. 3-5

But that does not mean we can ignore our sins. The next step David takes is to acknowledge the reality of his own sin. Indeed, the reality of his specific sins, his adultery, lying and murder have pushed him to acknowledge something deeper. He was like us, sinful from birth.

This is not a step into self-loathing, or depression – it would be without God to help. No it is an acceptance that there is something fundamentally wrong with us and we need God’s help to ever have any hope of change. Not just God’s help to stop being adulterous or murderous, but to accept that we need a deeper transformation.

3. Convert my inner self – vs. 10

This brings us to the next step. If the first two steps are about acknowledging what God is like and what we are like, the next two are about seeking the real change we need.

The first change is to ask for God’s help to convert our inner self. Verse 10 expresses this very powerfully:

“Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

David does not just say, “Sorry!”. He says, “Help me! Change me!” And he is not just asking for help to stop murdering people or to stop lying or to stop committing adultery, he is asking that the whole attitude of his heart is changed, so that such behaviours become completely against the kind of person he has become.

If you weed your garden by cutting off the weeds at the top, the weeds will grow back. If you pull the weeds out, roots and all, you will stop them growing again. It is this kind of rooting out that David is praying for.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells us not just to pray for forgiveness, but also to be rescued from all sin:

“Lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.”

We may already be forgiven, but the reason we keep praying for forgiveness is to help us in the process of rooting sin out of our lives.

4. Connect again with God – vs. 11-12

Fourthly, David’s prayer for forgiveness, is also seeking to connect again with God. He expresses a longing for a renewed relationship and a valuing of the joy and support that that relationship brings.

He says in verse 12:

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation…”

In experiencing God’s displeasure at his sin, David longs once more for the joy of knowing God and being in a perfect relationship with him. The result of his seeking forgiveness is a deeper reliance on God’s salvation and joy in what God has done for him.

For us as Christians this will also involve a return to understanding what Jesus has done for us on the cross and a deeper gratitude and rejoicing of his saving work there and the price he paid for our sins.

But, also understanding the price he paid for our sins, is important in showing us the need to forgive others as well.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says to pray,

“Forgive us our sins as we forgive the sins of others.”

Jesus follows that up in Matthew’s gospel with the verses:

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15)

It’s only as we remember how much God has done in forgiving us, that we see the utter necessity to forgive others. After all how can we accept God paying such a great price to release us from our debt of sin and guilt to him, if we are not willing to release others from their much smaller debt of sin against us.

When we are serious about connecting again with God and accepting his forgiveness, then we will also forgive others.

5. Contrite before God – vs. 16-17

All of this is to accept that in and of ourselves we cannot become perfect people. We do mess up, we do sin. We need God’s help to forgive us, remove our sin and restore our relationship with him.

In this sense we come to him as contrite, broken in our own pride, but rejoicing in his love and acceptance.

Our world today with its focus on the importance of self-esteem finds this idea difficult to accept. Yet, a self-esteem built on a denial of who we really are will never be stable or sustaining. Perhaps it’s no wonder that mental health is an increasing problem in our society.

True resilience comes from being broken before God and rejoicing in allowing him to renew and restore us to recreate us to be the kind of people he really wants us to be. That is a process, but a process in which regular confession of sin plays an important part.

The Result of Forgiveness:

We saw that the immediate problem for David created by his sin was his guilt and broken relationship with God. Such painful realities pushed him into praying for forgiveness.

And the result of that forgiveness is that the guilt, although painful for a while is soon removed. For example look at verse 7:

“Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean;

wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”

More than the inner guilt being removed, there is a joyful restoration in the relationship with God, which overflows from David in praise of God to others:

“Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

you who are God my Saviour,

and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.”

Acknowledging our sin, may be painful at first, but when we deal with it through prayers of confession – genuinely seeking God’s help, and a transformation or our inner selves and relationship with him, then we discover a life of deeper joy and love and we become the kind of people that truly shine for him.

Being a mother takes sacrifice. Hannah was desperate to become a mother, so why when God gave her a son did she give him back to God?

Have you ever wanted something really badly?

Have you ever wanted something so badly that it’s all you can think about, you desire it, dream about it, talk about it share your need for it.

When I was younger I really desperately wanted a Mr Frosty. I don’t know if you have ever come across Mr Frosty. it was basically a big hunk of plastic that you put ice cubes in its hat and turned a handle, added some fruity flavourings and it basically made a crushed ice slushy.I badly wanted a Mr Frosty I think from about probably the age of 4/5 it went on my Christmas list and for a number of years I think it went on there every Christmas. I can’t remember now if one of my cousins had one or not, but I just thought this was the most fantastic thing and I really wanted it. So I kept asking. I can’t remember if I did eventually stop asking or I realised that my life was carrying on without one and that was okay, when on my 18th birthday I opened up a present and what did I get I got a Mr Frosty because mum said it’s something I’ve always wanted and so she finally bought me a Mr Frosty. I love that gift I love the thought that mum knew me so well she knew that that’s what I’d wanted when I was younger it might be a trivial thing to want but it was something I wanted and I eventually did get it 

Is there something desperately that you really want?

Hannah’s desire for a child

In the Bible there is a story of a lady called Hannah. Hannah didn’t have children and she really wanted to. She was really sad about it and her husband was concerned for her – Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

But Hannah knew what she wanted. Hannah and her husband and the whole family had Gone to the temple to offer their yearly sacrifices and Hannah had got up in her longing and desire and had gone into the temple of the Lord and she made a vow to God saying Lord Almighty if he will only look on your servants misery and remember me and not forget your servant and give her a son then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used on his head” and she kept crying and crying to the Lord just full of of desire for what she wanted and felt she needed. As she was praying Eli one of the priests the high priest, saw her lips moving and thought she was drunk and he said how long are you going to stay drunk and she’s like I’m not my lord I’m a woman who is deeply troubled I’ve not been drinking I was pouring out my soul to the Lord I’ve been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. 

and Eli says to her  go in peace may the God of Israel grant you what are you have asked of him. in due course Hannah did actually become pregnant and she gave birth to a son and named him Samuel and Samuel sounds similar to the Hebrew word heard by God and so she calls him Samuel because she says I asked the Lord for him. 

We’re going to look a little bit more about Hannah and Samuel and what we see of parenthood love and sacrifice so we’re gonna continue her story by reading from 1 Samuel chapter 1 starting at verse 21through to 28.

Parenthood – love and sacrifice

The title I gave todays talk was parenthood – love and sacrifice, but maybe a better title might actually be parenthood – loving sacrifice. 

Raising a child can and does require loving sacrifice. Great parents do give up things in order for their children to grow and develop well.

To help us think about that a little bit I have a little quiz 

How much sleep do you parents give up? These options are for the number of nights before the child reached one year of age. is it 25 nights, 78 nights, 133 nights or 265 nights. The answer is 133 nights.

How much does it cost to raise a child? Is it £2000 £20,000 £200,000 £2 million? According to him and ask her on the times it’s just over £200,000 to raise a child from birth to the age of 18

According to the official office of national statistics how much of a parents time each day is spent on childcare and housework? Is it 60 minutes, 158 minutes, 252 minutes, 381 minutes? the answer is 252 minutes.

Final question what proportion of parents pay towards the cost of their  children’s house? is it 1/5 of parents, half of all parents, 2/3 of all parents or 4/5 of all parents. According to the website I was looking at apparently 2/3 of parents contribute in some way towards their child’s property.

Parenthood involves loving sacrifice of your own needs for the sake of your child.

When I was younger I thought the story of Hannah giving Samuel up in service to God was a strange story. She was desperate for a son, but she gave him back to God. Why would she sacrifice that? 

It’s true parents sacrifice many things for the love of their children, to provide for their needs but why was Hannah’s sacrifice to only raise him until he was three and then give her child to God’s service? I think I found this strange because I didn’t fully understand the motivation behind Hannah’s sacrifice. 

I’ve come up with three reasons why Hannah gave Samuel back to God. Number one she was able to sacrifice raising her son at home because she had faith in a loving God. Her heartfelt prayer came from a place, yes of desperation, but to a God who she believed would listen to her and care for her.

Secondly I think she sacrificed raising her son because of her gratitude to God for answering her prayers. She recognised that the gift of her son was just that a special gift and that God had provided her what she had most wanted. Which was why she was able to offer him back to God. 

When we take up the offering we normally say Lord, all things come from you and of  your own do we give you. This is gratitude and that’s what I think enabled Hannah to give her son back to God.

Thirdly she was able to entrust Samuel into Gods service because she was faithful to her father God. She had made a vow and she followed through. She could have said her prayer, received her son and then done nothing about the promise she had made to God. And yet she was faithful. Obedient in return.

The story of Hannah really struck a chord for my mum. My mum and dad were married for seven years before I was born and mum told me once that she never felt she could say the same prayer as Hannah because she couldn’t give me up. My mum desperately wanted to be a mum but she never felt she could give me up like Hannah did. We were having this conversation once and I said but mum that’s exactly what you’ve done. You brought me up to know and love God and sent me off into the world to serve him.

By Hannah’s sacrifice Samuel was going to be brought up in Gods house. She was ensuring him a future of walking closely with God

Remember our verse at the beginning? Come my children listen to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord’

That’s what my mum did for me and what Hannah did for Samuel.

We are not all parents here this morning but I believe On this Mothering Sunday that we can all learn from Hannah’s example? 

I think there are at least three things:

Gratitude – have an attitude of gratitude. Know that we are Gods children that we are his. That is the place that we’re starting from. Show gratitude to our parents, carers and those that through loving sacrifice give of their time and resources to help us.

Importance of teaching and nurturing faith in our children – And that all of us can play a part in the nurturing of faith in our children but also for each other.

God’s faithfulness and plan

Hannah’s story shows us that we love a God who is faithful to his people, has a plan and provides for their need Samuel became a great prophet in Gods plan for providing for his people when they desired a king.

We can all learn from the story of Hannah, to be grateful to our loving heavenly parent, to look out for where we can help our children and young Christian’s to grow in faith and to be assured of Gods faithfulness and plan for all his people.

Prayer is about expressing our goals to God and trusting in his care. How does the expression: ‘Give us today, our daily bread’ help to shape the goals we pray for and breed a deeper trust in God, that releases us from anxiety?

Prayer – the antidote to worry

Are you a worrier or a prayer?

In a survey carried out before the Pandemic, anxiety was effecting 30% of women between 18-24 in 2018, a figure that was only 8.2% in 2008. The increase is not limited to just this age group, but has grown massively amongst men and women under 55.

Why is this? Lots of reasons are suggested, the financial crash of 2008, followed by greater insecurity, stagnating wage rises and austerity are possibly part of the problem. The introduction of social media on mobile phones is undoubtedly part of it too, as well as wider concerns like Brexit and Climate change.

I am sure all of these are major factors in the increase in anxiety, but perhaps there is another one. Maybe part of the reason for the growth in anxiety is the decline in prayer. If church attendance is a guide, then between 1980 and 2015, church attendance had fallen from 11.8% of the population to 5% of the population.

Could our society be becoming more anxious as we become less prayerful, less connected with God?

The Bible claims that prayer is the antidote to worry:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6)

“Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

We are looking at the Lord’s Prayer, and this week we are focussed on the line: “Give us today our daily bread.” It is the part of the prayer that deals with our basic needs in life.

In Matthew’s gospel, the Lord’s prayer appears as part of Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Soon after teaching us this way of praying, he goes on to deal with people’s natural concerns about their basic needs. In other words having taught us to pray for our basic needs, he teaches us not to worry about them.

In fact this is the key passage in the whole New Testament on worry. The Greek word for worry appears 6 times in this passage and 3 times in the parallel passage in Luke. That’s 9 out of 27 times it appears in the whole New Testament. Jesus is saying the same thing over and over again: ‘Do not worry!’

But, he doesn’t just tell us to stop worrying, he also gives us reasons to stop worrying. He wants us to see that worry comes about through a wrong vision for life’s goals and a lack of trust in God’s care.

This is where prayer comes in. Prayer is an expression of our goals to God, as we tell God we want and it is an expression of our trust in God, as we seek his help and support. When we in pray to God our goals, become increasingly aligned with God’s goals and our trust grows in his provision. So we stop worrying about what does not matter and we trust God for what does matter.

The simple line, ‘Give us today, our daily bread,’ expresses all this brilliantly, when it comes to our material possessions.

Prayer – an expression of  goals

First of all then, let’s look at this prayer as an expression of goals that are in tune with God’s goals.

• Wealth a false goal

Jesus begins his teaching on not worrying, with the words, “Therefore, I tell you do not worry…”

This, ‘therefore’ refers to the paragraph before, where Jesus warns against chasing after riches.

He says in verse 19: “Do not store up treasures on earth…”

and warns in verse 24: “You cannot serve both God and money.”

Later on Jesus will warn in the Parable of the sower, that faith fails to come to fruition in some, because of wealth and worry:

“The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22)

Jesus is clear that running after riches and wealth is not something that should be a goal for us as Christians. So, Jesus does not teach us to pray, dear God help me win the lottery… or help my business to be as successful as Amazon… or help my house value to go up a lot. No, he teaches us to pray, ‘Give us today our daily bread.’

In fact this line in the Lord’s prayer draws on the book of Proverbs and in particular some wisdom at the end of the book, where it says:

“Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.

Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say,

`Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30:8-9)

Notice, that here ‘daily bread’ is explicitly a prayer to not be poor or rich!

Why? Because both may destroy the more important goal of honouring God. Having too much wealth, can mean we learn to rely on our wealth rather than on God. He becomes gradually less important in our lives and we can end up disowning him.

Conversely, being too poor may push you into desperate measures, so that you end up stealing and so dishonouring God.

Praying for what we need and nothing more, is avoiding the false goal of wealth, but staying true to the main goal, to honour God. It is a brilliant expression of what our goals should be with regards our basic needs.

• Social Justice

But notice that the prayer is for ‘our daily bread’ and not ‘my daily bread.’ This is not just a prayer concerned with my own selfish needs and desires, but it has a societal dimension. Our goal should not just be that I receive what I need, but that everyone around us does as well.

Luther picker up on this point and saw it as a prayer for social justice in society to ensure everyone received what they needed.

In fact he warned those who exploited the poor through injustice, so that they might not have enough to survive on:  “Let them beware of … the intercession of the church, and let them take care that this petition of the Lord’s Prayer does not turn against them!”

Perhaps our prayers and goals are often too individualistic and self-centred. The God of the Bible is consistently concerned for the material needs of the poor in society, we should be praying for and seeking to meet those needs to.

• God’s Kingdom is the key goal

Finally, on this question of goals, we need to see that this prayer for our material needs: “Give us today our daily bread…” is not the only petition or even the most important petition in the Lord’s prayer.

In verse 25, Jesus goes on to say:

• “…Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25b)

In fact he says that, a life that is focussed solely on material concerns is a denial of the God of the Bible:

“So do not worry, saying,`What shall we eat?’ or`What shall we drink?’ or`What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” (Matthew 6:31-32)

Rather, life is about a much higher goal:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

That is why the Lord’s Prayer, although it asks for material needs, begins with an emphasis on these more fundamental goals, that are to do with God:

“Hallowed be your name,

Yours Kingdom come,

Your will be done.”

We should pray for our material needs, having enough food to eat and clothes to wear is a valid goal in life. But as Christians it cannot be the only or sole goal. Indeed, if it is we will be racked with anxiety about having enough, especially if storing up riches has become our aim.

But we are not called to serve money, but God. We are not called to a life of anxiety, but the pursuit of God’s kingdom and his righteousness in our lives.

When we consider our prayer lives, we need to ask ourselves, do our prayers reflect these goals. Are they mainly about our material needs, or the material needs of others, or are they equally or even more concerned for God’s Kingdom and our righteousness – for the transformation of our lives into the likeness of Christ and the salvation of our friends and neighbours.

Jesus says when these things become our goals and priorities, ‘all these things will be given to you as well.’ In other words, God will provide for your basic needs. That’s where prayer as an expression of trust comes in.

• Prayer – an expression of trust

‘Give us today our daily bread’ is a recognition that we depend on God for our basic needs. It shows that we trusting both that he cares for us and that we can leave the future in his hands.

Trust in God’s care for our needs

In teaching us not to worry, Jesus is keen to show us that God will look after us. He argues from God’s care for nature, to the fact that because we are more valuable, God will definitely care for us:

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26)

“If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30)

Now none of this is saying, that we just need to pray and trust God. We still need to work. We still need to earn our money, buy the food and cook it! As Luther said, “God doesn’t put the seed in the birds beaks!” However,

the point Jesus is making is that we do not need to be anxious that when we do those things, we won’t have enough. God will ensure that we will.

So what do you do, if you are struggling to pay your way in the present cost of living crisis? The simple answer is not to worry, but to seek help. Seek help in prayer, first of all, God will provide. But, also you may need to seek help to make sure you are receiving all the financial support available to you or in budgeting your money more effectively, or in knowing where food may be available that is free or affordable.

And if you are not struggling, then remember that where all you have comes from. We may feel comfortable and secure, but actually we are utterly dependent on the daily bread God provides. Let’s learn to live with a sense of gratitude and dependence that keeps us rooted in him, rather than in our relative prosperity forgetting him altogether.

Trust in God for our future

Prayer is an expression of trust in God for his provision, but there is also a sense in which it leaves the future in God’s hands. This is key to dealing with anxiety, because anxiety is: the splitting of the soul between the now (where the heavenly Father meets us)  and an imagined dreaded future of need.

The Lord’s Prayer is only a prayer to give us today our daily bread. It is not concerned about our future needs, because that is to feed our anxiety and not trust that God will be there tomorrow for us.

As Jesus says at the end of our reading:

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)

This is not just an afterthought, it is actually one of the earliest lessons God wanted to teach his people.

When Israel had been rescued from being slaves in Egypt they found themselves wandering in the wilderness. How were they going to feed themselves, with no access to farming?

God’s answer was to provide them with Manna. Each morning they would go out and collect these flakes that appeared on the wilderness floor, which they were then able to eat.

The Manna appeared each day, but the constant worry must have been: will it appear tomorrow? Since it might not, surely the best thing to do was to store some for future days. But that worry was to not trust God’s promise that he would provide each day.

So, Moses said them:

“Then Moses said to them, “No-one is to keep any of it until morning.” 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.” (Exodus 16:19-20)

God used the Manna to teach them a lesson. They could rely on God to meet their daily needs. They did not need to worry about the future.

That is why Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us today, our daily bread.” It is a trust that God will provide for today and that we do not need to worry about tomorrow, because that will be a new day when God will provide!

So, stop worrying about the future and pray for your needs for today!!

Worrier or a Prayer

If anxiety is an issue for you, then you need to learn to pray.

Pray as an expression of God’s goals, not for wealth that will lead you away from him, but for what you need. Not just for your own needs, but for justice and provision for everyone’s needs. And seeking not material needs as the main priority, but God’s Kingdom and his righteousness.

And pray as an expression of trust in God. We are dependent on him, but he cares and values us deeply. And pray not worrying about the future, but for the needs of today – trusting that God can handle the future for us when that day comes!