by Chad Lewis on November 11, 2008
As our body gathered again for our monthly prayer service, our focus this morning was on the section of the Lord’s Prayer, “give us today our daily bread.” One of my fellow pastors, Robert Cheong, led us with the following thoughts this morning.
First, Robert reminded us that we depend on God for physical provisions. He said, “We take for granted so many aspects of our daily routine – the air we breathe, going to bed and waking up in the morning, walking, eating, and as a result, we forget to ask the Lord for the most basic physical provisions.” Even though God knows what we need before we ask Him, He delights in us realizing our need and bringing it before Him. This is another act of daily dependence upon Him and it reminds us that we are not only dependent in physical matter but also spiritual matters. As Jesus said in John 15, ” “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Do we really believe this truth? Our lives will show it if we do.
Secondly, Robert reminded all of us this morning that we need to depend on God for all of life. He said, “So we must not only ask the Lord for our daily physical bread, but we must also ask, ‘Give us today Christ and His gospel!’”
To close, Robert gave us the following to meditate on. It is a way to use “give us today our daily bread” within the entire Lord’s prayer. Let this be your prayer today.
**Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name-Lord, give us this day the grace to believe You are good, great, gracious, and glorious.
**Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven-Lord, give us this day the grace to seek Your kingdom and righteousness, as we believe that our basic needs will be given to us as well.
**Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors-Lord, give us this day the grace to forgive and love others as Christ has forgiven and loved us.
**And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one-Lord, give us this day the grace of your presence and power to fight this fight of faith as we battle unbelief.
by Chad Lewis on September 17, 2008
As I continue to reflect on the Lord’s Prayer, I would like to take a look at the second phrase of the prayer, “Hallowed Be Your Name.”
Before we ever ask for anything from God, it is a helpful practice to remember who we are talking to. We must remember that this is our Father who adopted us. He rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into His family.
Then we set His Name apart and remember Who He is and this brings about worship. This also brings about confidence. Names were a big deal back in Bible times. God often changed people’s names when He was doing a new work in their lives. Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Cephas to Peter. When you know someone’s Name, you know something about them. When we look at the Names of God, we know more about Who He is and what He does.
Knowing who God is informs our prayers. Knowing Who God is gives us greater confidence and faith in our asking and it sets our hearts to make much of God.
I imagine it is like we have our requests in our hands directly in front of our eyes. If we begin our prayers in this posture, our requests seem huge and overwhelming because they are all that we see. But, if we spend some time remembering Who God is and what He has done and what He promises to do, we have a better perspective on reality.
If you hold a coin up to your eye, it will look huge. But if you set it on the ground, you will see how big it really is in relation to other things. Our concerns, though they may be overwhelming, are nothing compared to the size and strength of our God.
So what are some Names of God that you need to meditate on today? Provider, Healer, Savior, Emanuel “God is with us”, Shalom “God our peace”, Creator, Savior, and the list goes on and on.
So, after we remember God is our Father, and after we adore Him for aspects of Who He is, we can seek to center ourselves on His Kingdom and His will and pray for that to come. All the while, remembering Who He is. Then we come with boldness and confidence asking for our needs to be taken care of and we pray for others in need. After all of this, we remember how we have wronged God and remember that we must forgive. Then we pray to be kept safe from temptation and the evil one.
I will seek to go deeper into the other aspects of this prayer in the weeks ahead. Spend some time today remembering, “He is the Lord. He is to be honored, obeyed and worshiped before all and in all we do. Ponder who He is and adore His majesty, holiness, sovereignty, goodness and beauty.”
by Chad Lewis on August 27, 2008
As we gathered last week in the early hours to pray as a family of believers, we heard one of our pastors teach for 10 minutes on the Lord’s Prayer. As pastors, we took between 10 and 15 people each and led our groups through the movements of the Lord’s prayer.
As I led my group, my heart was moved by the beauty of how this prayer proceeds and how Jesus in His graciousness gave it as an example. The thing is, I’ve used this model many times before, but something new was impressed on my heart. I would like to spend the next several weeks walking through the progression of the prayer in this blog.
The first statement in the prayer is, “Our Father in heaven…” What struck me anew was the thought that we are to remember before we ever come to God with our needs. God does command that we bring our concerns before Him, but before we do that, isn’t it needed that we remember who we are praying to?
So we say, “Our Father” and we remember who it is that we are praying to. We remember that we once were not a people and now we are a people of God’s own possession (1 Peter 2:9). We once were members of the domain of darkness and now God has not only rescued us, He has made us beloved children! He is our Father and He cares for us more than we could ever dream or imagine. He has plans for His children and He is always good and He always knows what is best.
As we enter our times of prayer, we need to remember who God is and what He has done. He is the caring Father and He calls us to boldly come into His presence (Hebrews 4:14-16). The rest of our prayer will flow from the realization that God is our Father and that He hears our prayers.
As our body gathered again for our monthly prayer service, our focus this morning was on the section of the Lord’s Prayer, “give us today our daily bread.” One of my fellow pastors, Robert Cheong, led us with the following thoughts this morning. 
