The Lord's Prayerਨਮੂਨਾ

Give us our daily bread

How good is it to not just blast through the Lord’s Prayer? I know I can sprint through it like I’m trying to get to the ‘Amen’ before you. Rushing to say or think every word as fast as possible because, well, that is what we tend to do with things we memorise.

A big problem with knowing something off by heart is that I can stop paying attention to its details. Somewhere along the line, I might shift from absorbing what I’m rattling off to reciting it without registering any of it. Being more deliberate and invested in the Lord’s Prayer can help me connect again with what I’m praying.

Every episode of The Lord’s Prayer Podcast with theologian and author David Höhne focuses on each separate line or clause. One of the reasons we did this is to encourage us to consider every part of it. When you take a breath, apply the brakes, and pray the Lord’s Prayer at a meditative pace, notice how its riches flow forth.

What might jump out at you is how ‘Give us today our daily bread’ is a pivot point in the prayer. Before this direct request for God’s personal provision, the prayer Jesus taught us has focused squarely upon God. As David Höhne put it, the second half indicates to us what we can ‘rightly pray for ourselves’.

While Jesus invites us to approach God daily for what we need, the ‘bread’ petition of the Lord’s Prayer also points to Jesus Himself. Every day, pray to God to be nourished by the bread of eternal life.

Written by BEN McEACHEN