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PRAYING FOR THE WRONG BREAD CAN SHAPE OUR LIVES

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welcome back everyone to this series oftops that are designed to encourage yourday lighten your night and fine-tuneyour direction for life as a child ofGod no matter where you are on thatjourney I want to look at Matthewchapter 6 today where the disciples cameto Jesus and made a request of himthey had observed the disciples of Johnthe Baptist being taught to pray andthey had to observe Jesus himselfpraying the requests that they made ofJesus was teach us to pray and thus wehave in Matthew 6 what we often call theLord’s Prayer it was the Lord’s Prayernot because he prayed it but because hegave it to the disciples as a prayermodel to use one thing to notice aboutthis prayer is found right in the middlewhere there are three short words ourdaily bread this part of Prayer I thinkusually comes easy to us we’re prettygood about remembering our daily breadthe things of this life that we need oreven just want one thing we’re going tofind today though is that Jesus seems toconcentrate more on the spiritual breadthe spiritual part of this life ratherthan the physical before we get anydeeper I want to acknowledge a statementI recently heard to go something likethis yeah and I think it has somethingto do with our subject as goes theChristians prayer life so goes his lifenow some may disagree with this but thisis what the subject of prayer andpraying correctly this makes it soimportant because it affects our wholelife let me explain what I’m sayingpeople living in our culture today arealmost across the board faced withanxiety stress worry and depressionanxiety and depression medication aretwo major areas of healthcare costs thatcontinue to rise but it doesn’t justwreck our wallets and add financialworries to our list these things alsohave been proven to be harmfulphysically to our bodies as well as toour minds also they are joy killers toour spirit that absolutely sucks thelife out of us the Christian knows fromPhilippians 4 that this should not bewe’re told quite clearly to be anxiousin nothing but by prayer andsupplication let your requests be knownto God and He will guard your soul inmind andJesus the Christian who heats the willof God and goes into the throne room ofJesus to lay down his burdens in prayerand absolutely leaves the anxiety andworry behind simply does not have todeal with these things these things thatare such burdens in the lives ofordinary peopleso as the prayer of a Christian goes sogoes his life when our prayer life isshallow or even non-existent we can endup carrying the weight of the wholeworld on our own shoulders and sufferfor but if we have faith in the word andfollow it in our prayers we’re able tohave more room in our life for joy andpeace and patience Ephesians the firstchapter should strengthen us in thisview this view of leaning on prayer sostrongly is what I’m talking about Paulprays for the eyes of the Ephesianshearts to be enlightened so that theymight come to realize some importantfacts one fact that always jumps out atme is that he wanted the Ephesians toknow the riches of his that is God’sinheritance in the Saints he has justmentioned inheritance in Christ Jesusand so it’s easy to read past this firstand continue thinking about ourinheritance that’s not what Paul saysthough he speaks of God’s inheritance inthe Saints the kingdom the church thisis law that’s it excuse me this is ourfather’s view of you as a Christianyou’re a valuable inheritance that Godhas hoped to receive as you give to himthat ought to easily give youencouragement and sustain you day-by-dayhe wants this communication from you heloves you he wants to share your burdenand lighten your load as we zero in onMatthew 6 there are two questions thatare worthy to be asked and answerednumber one is is this model prayer ofMatthew six something which reflectsyour daily prayer and number two is onceyou’ve prayed this prayer using thismodel do you go out in faith trustingthe Lord so that you’re free to bejoyful satisfied content and able toshine as brightly as the light you arelet’s look at this model prayer for justa few moments let me be perfectly clearI’m not saying nor do I think that Jesuswas saying that this was a prayer thatthe disciples were to reciteword-for-word in order to receive itsblessingthere’s nothing magical or mysticalabout these words instead the Lord gavethe disciples a model prayer an exampleof how to pray this prayer has anintroduction in a clothes in a bodybetween as any address might have itbegins with our Father who art in heavenhallowed be thy name without sayingthese words we also begin many of ourprayers with the same respect for thefather our Father in gloryHeavenly Father we come before youloving father we approach your throne ofgrace these are some examples ofbeginning a prayer with respect for ourCreator Jesus closes in the same waywhen he says to him be the kingdom andthe glory for ever and everwe often close with the name of Jesusthat is by the authority of the Son ofGod and we offer respect in this way butit’s between these bookends of respectand I want to consider the heart of thisprayer is made up of four statementsthat I want us to look at quickly and Iwant us to look at them from thestandpoint of consistency are these fouraspects of Prayer consistent with myprayer how I pray my attitude of Prayerlet me put it another way in the body ofthis prayer there’s a statement thekingdom come Thy will be done on earthas it is in heaventhese three phrases that make up theirstatement are they consistent withliving this prayer in my lifethese three phrases speak of God’sauthority and his sons reign in my lifenow do I let him reign in my life do Isubmit to his will in his way or do Ifight for my right to be depressed andstressed out and anxious do I say that’sjust the way I am how much thought timeand even prayer do I commit to his wellbeing done in my life then I want you tonotice the short phrase in the middle ofthis prayer that lends itself to thetitle of our talk today give us this dayour daily bread this is where Jesus istelling his disciples and us aboutpraying for our daily blessings our foodshelter clothing our work our friendsour loved ones our health our loves ourfeelings fact that my car keeps runningthat no trouble interferes with myschedule everything about this life Iwant to be honest with you and I wantyou to be honest with youdon’t tell me about it but ask yourselfhow much time do you spend praying aboutyourself your wants in the physical partof this life compared to the model ofJesus prayer where he devotes far moretime and thought into spiritualconsiderations and mentions thesephysical necessities almost briefly inpassing Jesus moves on quickly from thisphysical mention of provision so hestarts with respect and honor towardsdeity he briefly expresses concern aboutphysical necessities and then he movesback into the spiritual realm againdealing with the need for forgivenessboth received and given he taught agreat deal about forgiveness so it wouldonly be right for him to make it a mainpoint of his prayer likewise it isimportant to mention because it’sgenerally considered a difficult thingto do especially when one is hurting ormistreated which is exactly the time itshould be offered however what we’retalking about here is Jesus prayer forus to be led to adapt this godlycharacteristic to our life he’s talkingabout nothing more than extending mercyand grace to others as we would wantthem to be extended to ourselves Jesuscontinues his prayer not by talkingabout health safety or any otherprovision of physical life but insteadhe prays not to be led into temptationto be kept from the evil one and to bedelivered from his power as he isconcluding his prayer Jesus is rightback on track with spiritual warfare andspiritual desires now let me ask youanother question the reason is because Ibelieve you can see where I’ve beengoing with this how does your prayerstack up against your model I know as Ithink about these things that the bulkof my prayers concern themselves withhealth and provision loved ones andbrethren I’m frankly embarrassed to holdmy prayer up next to the model thatJesus gave and I see that it’s no wonderthe disciples want to went to Jesus toteach them how to pray when they observeJesus praying they must have observed agreat difference between his prayer andtheirs I’m not saying I don’t believeJesus was saying that you should notpray for your health for your freedomsfor your children for your safety etc Ithink he was saying that you should prayfor your daily bread you should pray forthese things of acool nature and he included them in hisprayer what I’m saying however is thatthe prayer life of a Christian as itgoes so goes his life if the book of myprayer is made up consistently ofphysical things the material things ofthis life then what kind of life am Igoing to have what kind of attitude isgoing to shape me Jesus continues toemphasize this focus on spiritual thingsover material things as Matthew 6continues he strictly says not to worryabout things like clothing after alllook how God clothes the lilies of thefield not to worry about the things ofthis life because don’t we realize thevery hairs of our head are numbered withGod not to worry about food becauseevery Sparrow in the field has plenty toeat on a daily basis he implies maybethere’s only people without God who mustbe anxious and worried about the thingsof this life I want you Jesus said to beconcerned about the spiritual side oflife pray about the kingdom pray abouthis righteousness that is his righteousway of life in the bread that you’re soconcerned about will take care of itselfwe not remember about the daily breadthat the Lord gave Israel in thewilderness for 40 years he tested themwith it he called it manna and he usedit to test them to see if they wouldgather more than they needed each dayand they failed the tests he tested themto see if they would gather enough onFriday so that the Sabbath could be freeof work they failed that test also hegave them what they wanted of bread morethan they needed of meat and they failedthat test as well while they weregorging themselves they were struck witha plague and thousands died in leavingthey called that place the graves ofgreediness this is the danger offocusing on the bread in our prayer andminimizing our focus on spiritual thingswhen the bread that we asked for isgiven we can ask for more than we needwe can reach misuse what we get and wecan lose our gratitude as we lose ourfocus remember the second question thatwe started with is my living consistentwith my prayer is that something I needto be concerned aboutby all means pray for your children yourhealth and recognize all provision comesfrom God but don’t let that be the majorfocus of your prayerrecognize the daily bread is importantbut nowhere near as important as thespiritual blessings that we long for andneed so desperately the daily bread isjust that daily safety and security isnever a guarantee in this life the hopeof our salvation and the redemption ofour great God is a guarantee however andit is a faithful one for those who makeit their aim to seek first his kingdomand his righteousness that guarantee isgiven in the form of the Holy Spiritwhenever you’re listening to thiswhether it’s daytime or evening go outand have a great day an amazing day forthe Lord or a blessed evening rememberas your prayer life goes so goes yourlife make sure your focus and your dailyprayer includes your daily bread butit’s built around the spiritual breadwhich comes down from heaven begin yournext begin with your next prayer to makebetter bread god bless you

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