Playback speed
Matthew 6.11 NLT
'Give us today the food we need.'
Have you ever wondered why we ask God for food on a daily basis? Why not ask him to supply us for a week or even a month? It’s a perfectly sensible question and the answer is clearly that God wants a relationship with us. He wants us to live in continual partnership with him. Every day we need to turn to him to obtain the nourishment that we need. This applies in both a physical and a spiritual sense. Just as we need to eat each day so too we need to ensure that we are receiving spiritual nourishment. However excellent last Sunday’s church service was, or however blessed you were by yesterday’s time of prayer, you need to open yourself to the breath of God’s Spirit today. You need him to strengthen you to live for him in the particular challenges and opportunities of this unique day.
I am struck by the fact that everything in this prayer is plural. The prayer begins with the words “Our Father in heaven” and here we pray for the food that we need. The moment we start praying we identify the fact that we are part of a family and when we think about getting fed it isn’t just about my empty stomach or my spiritual needs but about the feeding that we all need.
Physical food is available in abundance in this world but people have very unequal access to it. In some countries even today there is starvation, and in others including our own there are immoral levels of waste. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are taking our share of the responsibility for ensuring that food is made generally available to everyone throughout the world. When we pray that God will feed us spiritually we are expressing a longing that he will nourish everyone else as well. If you are feeling thoroughly well fed in body, mind and spirit that’s excellent but it isn’t enough. We pray that that same blessing will extend to men and women everywhere. What we are learning is that the Lord’s Prayer is incredibly radical. We are praying that God will fundamentally change our world.
QUESTION: In what way do you need to be fed today?
PRAYER: Lord God thank you that your understanding of me is so complete that you know exactly how I need to be nourished today. Amen
Released on 19 Sep 2021
Matthew 6.12 NLT 'Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.' The Lord’s Prayer has its feet firmly planted on the ground! It talks about our everyday life and here it faces up to the horrible but undeniable fact that ...
Matthew 6.13 NLT 'Don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.' When we prayed for our sins to be forgiven and for us to forgive others we were looking to the past. Now the Lord’s Prayer looks to the future. Once again t...
Matthew 6.16-17 NLT 'And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and dishevelled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get...
You’re almost there! To access this content
A world of great Christian audio is just around the corner
We are SO excited to announce the return of Premier Christmas radio for a second year running! It's finally time to get festive with our pop-up Christmas radio station. Allow us to fill your days with Hope, Peace, Joy and Love this winter with our carefully crafted Christmas radio. Listen Now