We want to look today at the secret
of how we can get our prayers answered
by God.
And if you listen carefully and learn from
the way Jesus taught us to pray, it
can change your life.
We were looking in our last study about
putting God first in our life and in
our prayers.
Once we have done that, you know, in
Matthew 6, verse 9, 10 and 11, Jesus
spoke about praying our Father who art in
heaven.
The number one burden and request and longing
of my heart is that your name will
be hallowed.
And the number two longing and burden and
request that I have in my heart is
that your kingdom will come.
And the number three desire and longing and
request in my heart is, Lord, that your
will will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.
Do you think many believers really mean that?
I mean, a lot of believers pray this
prayer like a parrot from childhood.
But they have never stopped to think what
are they saying.
They are making the very same mistakes that
Jesus said right at the beginning.
Don't pray as hypocrites and don't pray with
meaningless repetition.
But once we understand right what Jesus was
trying to emphasize here, we'll discover that if
you really begin to pray like this, you'll
become a spiritual man.
You'll really be spiritual.
Think if your primary desire in your life
is that God's name should be glorified and
that His kingdom should come on earth and
His will should be done.
And that is the uppermost thing in your
life.
Not whether you make money or whether your
backache is healed or any such thing.
Those things are there, but they are secondary.
Can you imagine what it'll do to your
life if you begin to pray in this
way all the time?
Putting God's interests first and foremost.
It'll change your life completely.
You'll become another man, another woman.
Instead of being occupied with all the other
problems of earth primarily.
Now once we have put God first, and
the reason why Jesus told us to put
God first is because many of those other
problems will never get solved if we don't
put God first.
You may get rid of one set of
problems and get another set of problems.
Because God's not first in your life.
But once you put God first in your
life, I'm not saying you won't have problems,
but I'm saying that God will intervene and
make you triumphant in the midst of those
problems.
The Bible says many are the afflictions of
the righteous.
Psalm 34, verse 19.
Many are the problems which righteous people face,
but the Lord delivers from all of them.
That's the difference.
Worldly people also face problems, but they don't
have anyone to deliver them.
We have a Father in heaven.
So learn to put God first in your
life, in everything.
Don't put your business first, don't put your
studies first, don't put your children first or
your wife or husband or home or property
or anything.
Put God first and see the difference it
will make in your life.
Then you'll become a real disciple.
Once you have done that, then Jesus taught
us to pray, give us this day our
daily bread, forgive us our debts as we've
forgiven others, lead us not into temptation, deliver
us from evil.
Notice one word or let's say two words
that are never found in this prayer.
I and me.
We could add another one, my.
I, me, my.
These three words which are so common in
our language.
I.
I'm a very, very important person.
It's one of the most important words in
the English language.
I.
Me.
My.
It's not even mentioned in this prayer even
once.
After we have sought God, God's name and
God's kingdom and God's will first, after we've
put God first in our life, the next
thing the Lord wants to teach us is
don't think selfishly only of yourself, but think
of your fellow believers.
The father has got many children.
Are you hungry?
Do you need food?
Yes, certainly pray that God will give you
your daily bread, but don't forget there are
others of God's children also who are hungry.
You're not the only one.
Pray for them too.
And if you've got an abundance of food,
don't forget those other children of God who
don't have it.
So, he said, when you pray, say, give
us this day our daily bread.
When you pray for forgiveness, say, forgive us
our sins.
When you pray for deliverance, say, deliver us
from evil.
So, we find that the Lord was trying
to deliver people not only from self-centeredness
in the sense that God is not the
center of their life, but also from this
self-centeredness where we don't think of other
people around us at all.
And he taught us to pray, give us,
forgive us and deliver us.
So, in this prayer about prayer for daily
bread, Jesus wasn't asking us to pray that
we would have bread for a whole year
or any such thing.
But Lord, if you will give me just
enough for today, that's fine.
Now, I'm not saying therefore you shouldn't have
food for tomorrow or money for tomorrow or
savings or any such thing.
That's not the point here at all.
You can have savings for your need in
the future or whatever it's like.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But you should be happy and satisfied if
God has given you just enough for today.
That's the point.
That means if God has given you only
food enough for today, well, praise the Lord.
Thank you Lord for today and you'll take
care of tomorrow.
But if you can, plan for tomorrow, go
right ahead.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But be thankful for what is provided and
ask God for the provision of our immediate
needs.
Lord, give us this day our daily bread.
And Jesus did not teach us there to
pray for luxury.
He's not asking for our daily ice cream
or daily cake or any such thing.
It's just daily bread.
Just that simple, a simple meal to keep
my body and soul together, to keep me
in health.
That's all Lord.
And just give me enough for today.
That's fine.
There's no covetousness here.
Jesus taught us to pray for material things
when we are praying for our necessity, not
for luxury.
We don't find anywhere in the New Testament
any encouragement to pray to God for luxury.
But we do find here in this prayer
which the Lord Himself taught.
He's encouraging us to pray for necessity.
Yes, it is true that your Heavenly Father
knows what you need even before you ask
Him.
Doesn't the Father know that we need daily
bread?
He certainly does.
Then why doesn't He give it without our
asking?
The reason is because He wants to have
communication with us.
And He wants us to have the joy
and the privilege of answered prayer when you
get your daily bread.
That's why even before we eat our meals
as Christians, we always bow our head and
pray and thank God for the food.
And I hope all of you do that.
I hope in your homes you don't rush
into your meal without bowing your head first
and praying and thanking God for the food.
Now, it's not in order to make the
food taste better or any such thing that
we do that.
We do it as an expression of gratitude
and thereby acknowledging that it is God who
has provided it.
Now there are atheists and godless people in
the world who dig into their meal without
thanking anybody.
Well, let them go their way.
But we acknowledge that it is God who
has given it.
God has opened our eyes to see that.
Those atheists are blind.
They don't know who has provided their food.
So we pray to God not to inform
Him about our need because He already knows
that, but to express our dependence upon Him
even for our material necessity.
Now, this also teaches us that there's nothing
wrong in praying for any material thing which
we need.
It may be clothing.
If you need clothing, you can pray for
it.
It may be a house that you need
to live in.
You can pray for it.
For educational facilities for your children.
You can pray for it because you want
them also to learn to earn their daily
bread.
Well, they cannot earn their daily bread in
most countries unless they have a decent education.
So there's nothing wrong in praying for the
education of our children as well.
So, all these things come in that little
prayer.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Lord, provide us with what is necessary for
our life on this earth.
Now, it's very interesting to see that this
prayer for daily bread comes immediately after Thy
will be done on earth as it is
in heaven.
So, when we put the two requests side
by side next to each other, we find
it's something like this.
Thy will be done.
Lord, my longing is that your will will
be done on earth as it is done
in heaven.
Now, in order to do that will of
yours on earth, please give me my daily
bread so that I can have strength to
do it.
So, you see, the reason why we ask
God for material things is so that we
can do His will and not our own.
That's why it's very important first to pray,
Thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven, and then to come to
our material needs.
And the trouble with a lot of Christians,
of course, is that they only pray for
their material needs, and there's no connection between
that and doing the will of God in
their life on earth.
And so we see here the request for
material needs comes there, and there's nothing wrong
with it.
Some people think that we shouldn't pray to
God for any material things, that it's wrong
to pray for material things.
We only pray for spiritual things.
It's not true.
It sounds very holy, but it's contrary to
the teaching of Jesus who taught us before
even the prayer for forgiveness of sins and
deliverance from evil to pray for our bodily
needs.
So let's never think that this body was
created by Satan.
It was created by God.
And when we put God first in our
life, it's perfectly proper to ask God to
provide all our material needs.
Not luxury, but necessity.
The Word of God says, My God shall
supply all your needs according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus.