Give Us Jesus

September 23, 2015

Give Us Jesus

Give us this day our daily bread

Matthew 6:11 (NRSV)

The NLT renders this verse, “Give us today the food we need,” which is consistent with the general understanding of this verse. But what if our Lord had something else in mind? This is not to say that the Lord is not interested in the basic physical needs of our bodies; there are plenty of scriptures that confirm that he is indeed concerned with every aspect of our lives. But here, in the Lord’s Prayer, perhaps he wants us to reach higher.

In John 6, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” He goes on to say it is God’s will, that those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life. The full context of Jesus’ teaching here is that in him, all of our needs, including our needs to be loved, accepted and to have a complete sense of self-worth – all these needs are fully and completely met in Jesus! Could it be that asking our Abba Father for our daily bread is a way of asking for the fulfillment of Colossians 3:3? (“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”)

Jesus also related the bread of Holy Communion to his body: “He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me” (Luke 22:19). I don’t think the Lord’s Prayer is necessarily urging us to take the sacrament of Holy Communion on a daily basis; although some, such as John Wesley, practiced this spiritual discipline. I do believe our Lord is encouraging us to ever keep before us the truth that we will fully become the people God created us to be as we feast daily on Jesus!

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.