Bread of Life

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

BREAD OF LIFE

Matt 6:9-13

9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

NIV

Having looked at the holiness of the name of God and that we are wanting the reign of God in our lives, submitting our will to Him. We now consider what Jesus meant by telling us to pray that He gives us this very day our daily bread. We know that Jesus also refers to himself as the Bread of Life, which is recorded for us in the gospel of John. This is one of the seven “I AM” statements of Jesus. “I AM the bread of life”. It is interesting Jesus used the very same word that is used for a loaf of bread. It is also interesting that bread is the basic substance of life. A person can life for a long time only on bread and water. God brought down bread from heaven for the Israelites when they were wandering in the wilderness. Jesus referred to himself at that last meal with his disciples as bread, when he took a loaf of bread, broke it and said that this is his body and told his disciples to eat all of it. The point being that when we ask for our daily bread, we could see this as asking the Father to provide our basic needs of material food. Of course, we can go buy all the food we want, so why would we ask the Father for something we can go buy, unless we have no money at all and are completely destitute. But that is rarely the case, we are also have been told, as descendants of Adam, that we will work the ground by the sweat of our brow all the days of our life for our sustenance, which implies we work, and we get paid, and we buy food. Therefore, we are left with seeing this daily bread as Jesus. We should pray to God that he gives us our daily supply of Jesus, the food that does not spoil, but food that leads to eternal life. If the physical bread can sustain our physical life, then our daily bread, Jesus, sustains our spiritual life. It is also interesting this is a daily experience. We want a daily portion of Jesus, every day, all day long. It is not just those once in awhile times when we take the elements of communion that we are to remember that Jesus, the bread if life, was broken for us and that we are to eat it all. However, that also implies that we want all of Jesus in our lives. Father, give us our daily bread. 

Whose Will Be Done

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

WHOSE WILL BE DONE

Matt 6:9-13

9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

NIV

What did Jesus mean when he taught us to pray that His kingdom comes, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven? Of course, we have changed your to His and we also recognize that we are praying to the Father, so it is the Father’s kingdom. This might also be the time to interject the fact that we do not pray to Jesus, but that we pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus. In order words, the only way to the Father, even in prayer, is through Jesus. Now, on to this idea of praying that the Father’s kingdom will come and that His will be done in our lives, just as His will is done in Heaven. The Father has absolute authority in heaven, nothing happens in heaven without the expressed will of God. If an angel thinks he can go here or there based on his own plans, it isn’t going to happen, because the Father has to approve everything that goes on in heaven. We are praying for that same authority of the Father to be here on earth, which implies in our lives. When we pray this, or something like this, as again, Jesus did not say that we should quote, or recite his exact words repeatedly for years and years. However, the point is that when we pray that the Father’s will be done, that is we pray that His absolute authority is present on earth as it is in heaven and by implication when we say earth, we mean us. Therefore, reciting this prayer without full understanding or a true desire for our prayer to be answered is just words, and not actually what we want to happen. In general, we think more than fewer believers do not what God’s will to be done in their lives. We struggle with that sometimes when we want our will rather than His will. How much of our lives are controlled by us, and how much is under the absolute authority of God?  How is it that we recite this prayer, and it would seem it is never answered if we are not fully under the authority of God, forfeiting our will completely? Maybe that is not what Jesus meant for us to pray. Maybe he meant that we should pray that one day, this earth, that is all the peoples of this earth will be like heaven. Maybe he meant that someday this earth will be the new earth and new heaven and that God will rule in the new city. But alas, that is not it. We are fully convinced Jesus meant for us to pray that God’s will be done in our lives, just as it is done in heaven. We are praying that we will be fully under that absolute authority of God. This means we do not do anything unless God approves it. It also means that we do not do that which God disapproves of. How do we justify any sin then, for that is us doing our will instead of His, and we know we are not free of all sin, at least at this moment? One day we will be free for all sin, but for now, we know that our sin is covered by Jesus, and we know that is the will of the Father. Jesus brought the kingdom of heaven to earth, and so as we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are perfectly doing the will of the Father. His will is done because we are in Christ. But that does not give us a license to do our will, just because Jesus has set us free. No, let us pray that God’s will be done in us, each day. Let us want His will, not ours to be done. 

Holy is Your Name

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

HOLY IS YOUR NAME

Matt 6:9-13

9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

NIV

As we go through this example of prayer that Jesus gave us, we need to remember this is how we should pray when we are in secret place. We do recognize that this prayer is recited verbatim during corporate worship in many churches. It is not that we think that is wrong, but we do wonder why gf of that instruction about our secret place. However, or whenever we look at this example of prayer, we wonder why we simply recite it and think we have complied with what Jesus taught about how we should pray. What we should do is to take each of these examples and see how our prayer would look like. First things first, and that is to acknowledge the one we are praying to. We also want to acknowledge that He is our Father, the Father of mankind, but on a more personal level, our Father, because as we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, which means we are born again, or born from above, we have been given the right to be called children of God. Therefore, He is our Father. As in an earthy family, the father is the head of the family, the one who has authority because he has the responsibility and accountability to God for his family. This is the relationship with have with our Heavenly Father. He has all the authority in the family, and He has all the responsibility, and He is accountable to His own words, for He never lies, but always is truthful. So, we acknowledge He is our Father, and we give praise and honor to his very name. This bring us to consider what name are we hallowing, or declaring as sacred and holy, which is what the Greek word translated as hallowed means. The Jews would not pronoun His name because it is too holy.  Sometimes we have referred to His name as Jehovah, and adding adverbs, such as Jireh to indicate one of the facets or traits of God. We have also used Yahweh pronouncing His name in Hebrew. However, the point remains the same, His name is sacred and holy, and it is right to establish this in the beginning of our conversation or prayer with Him. This is not so much that we have the right to declare His name sacred and holy, but it is more for our benefit to know His name is holy and sacred, far above all names, especially ours. Acknowledging the sacredness and holiness of His name puts us in the right relationship with Him regarding any of our requests. So, we begin our quiet time alone with Him in our secret place knowing His name is hallowed, everything about Him is holy and sacred, especially His name. 

When You Pray

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

WHEN YOU PRAY

Matt 6:5-8

5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

NIV

Although these words of Jesus are but the introduction of those words we consider to be “The Lord’s Prayer”, we should consider what he said be before he instructs them, or gives them an example of how to pray. The first impression that we see here is that God is not impressed with how many words we use in our prayer. The second thing we notice is that we should be praying in our secret place. However, this would preclude any corporate prayer, which we are often engaged in. It would seem that every time the church comes together, we feel we must spend time in prayer. However, here is where we might get into a little conflict with Jesus. He instructs us that when we pray, we should no keep in babbling like the pagans, thinking that God will hear us if we use a lot of words. We know some believers who feel the need to use a whole lot of words, carefully crafted words which again cannot be for the purpose of impressing God, which leads us to believe they feel the need to impress men. The whole point Jesus is making here is that God already knows all our needs and all He is asking that we just simple ask. We know there are some who believe that we should pray the scriptures, in which we are reminding God of what he said, or that we can be assured we are praying in his will. First, God needs no reminding, for he knows our need before we ask. Second, we do not think that He gave us His word so we can quote it back to Him, He knows what He said. Yes, we will get to “The Lord’s Prayer”, and yes, it is a pattern as to how we might pray in our secret place, when we are just having conversation with him about our times and troubles. But, again, are we just to recite His words back to Him, or are we to use His words as a pattern for prayer? This is not discarding those times as a congregation when we recite His prayer in unison. There may be some benefit in that, bringing us together, being of one mind, at least for a moment. But then we should also take those words to heart as we say them, rather than just rattling them off, keeping up with the lead prayer. Prayer does not have to be a long dissertation, but only needs to be speaking the request. If someone asks us to pray for them, we merely must pray for them, and not for all the unsaved in the world, or for our leaders, or the missionaries around the whole. When we are asked to prayer for someone, pray for them and them alone, for that is their need. It also does not need to be long and drawn out, it merely needs to be a prayer for their need. This “Lord’s Prayer” does not fit into those times of prayer, but it fits for us to use as an example of how to pray when we are in our secret place. For now, we simply need to ask for the need, the one God already knows we have, and we also know that he desires to bless us, to answer us. We do not serve a god of stone, or metal, crafted by human hands, that cannot speak. We serve a living God who speaks into our hearts, who knows us, knows our need, and wants us to just ask, and He will answer, but we must listen. 

Zip Your Lips

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

ZIP YOUR LIPS

Matt 6:2-4

2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

NIV

Now, let us deal with one of the three specific areas of the Christian life that Jesus expanded, or brought into the New Covenant. We think this is different that bringing the tithe into the storehouse as, in general, the tithe usually has nothing about giving to the needy. Usually, the tithe goes to pay the salaries of the church staff, some of which can become large. One church we attended had six paid pastors, several part-time paid assistant to the pastors, plus all the secretary and janitorial staff. The budget was as large as the church. Nevertheless, no matter the size of the church or its budget, the tithe seldom see any needy. This is simply people helping people. It may be that some churches have programs to help the needy, or support faith-based organizations that help the needy. However, what ever the way we help the needy, whether that is through directly giving them money, or some of their physical needs, such as clothing and food, or whatever other material needs they may have, we are not to announce it. There is the center of it all, there can be no announcing how we give to the needy. How ever we give it has to be done secretly so not even our right hand knows what our lieft hand is doing. But we want people to know that we do this or that for the needy. Some how we might think that in the case of a church, someone feels the need to inform all the congregation how the church is doing in its giving to the needy. Maybe that is different than us personally giving to their needs. If we are so impressed by the Spirit to give to the needy personally, then not a single other person in the world must know about it, except our spouses, of course. We could take this to apply toward our giving at church, in the tithe or just a gift above our tithe. Again, usually we expect someone to keep a record of our giving so we can have it for our taxes, getting our reward though a write off. But could this principle of giving apply to that tithe, which some of which does go to the needy. So then, how do we keep that a secret? Tithe in cash would be the only way no one would ever know who it came from. However, we cannot be sure that it applies to the tithe, but just to our personal giving to an individual in need. Either way, it is good not to boast about any giving, however that happens. In essence, Jesus is saying zip your lips. 

Not Before Men

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

NOT BEFORE MEN

Matt 6:1

6:1 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

NIV

We are going to see some specific acts as Jesus expands on this initial statement, but it would be good to simply take these words of his and consider what they look like other than the following examples Jesus gives. Of course, maybe he meant this only to apply to the three specific areas of life, giving, praying, and fasting. However, those are not the only acts of righteousness that we can do before men, unless all other acts, except these three, are not righteous. Surely all the “Good deeds” must be considered as acts of righteousness, don’t they?  How can we do “Good deeds” without men seeing them? Even if we limit the acts of righteousness to giving, praying, and fasting, it seems that at least two of the three are done in the presence of men. In fact, we generally keep a record of our giving so we can have our reward at tax season. We also make it a habit to pray before men, some of which pray eloquently with, words, which seem a little showy, sort of. But we will get more in-depth with those three areas as we deal with each one. For now, let us be content to simply consider that the Christian life is not to be a flashy one, showing off our spirituality, or rattling off all the good things we are doing for the Lord. We remember one of the churches we were members of that whenever a local leader of the community attended some function, like a 9/11 memorial service, the pastor would make sure to give a list of all the “Good Deeds” the church does in the community. It was boastful and arrogant and wrong, which is one of the reasons we left that church. There is no good reason to announce all the good things we are doing, for that would be doing our acts of righteousness before men. Why do we feel that we have to give an account of our deeds? Perhaps those who are paid ministers feel the need to justify their pay, by giving an account of all they do in the name of the Lord. Still, it would seem that it is a form of boasting and needs to be omitted. This even extends to all of us, for anything we do that is being done in service to the Lord. We will get into more detail about those three later, but we cannot escape the fact this applies to so many areas of the Christian life. There are some things, some “Good deeds” or acts of righteousness that we cannot hide from men. There are some which have to be done in the open, so to speak, but then we need to see the difference between humility and boastfulness and remember we are not to think more highly of ourselves than we should. So then, if we have to serve the Lord before men, let us serve with humility, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and with grace and love. 

Love Them

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

LOVE THEM

Matt 5:43-48

43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

NIV

From what we can gather, the Jews were in a special class, in that they were the chosen people of God, and all others were not, and thus were the Jew's natural enemy. If war was to take place, they were told to destroy their enemy, kill them all. This would prevent any intermarriage, thus diluting the Jewish line. However, even in many nations throughout the world today, we still have natural enemies and wars have been a way of life for mankind. We would have to believe that Jesus is not talking about loving our enemy in the same sense that we love our neighbor or friend as the Greek word could be used as one nearby or a friend. This would imply to the Jews, other Jews, and the gentiles would not be one nearby or a friend. Still, when we look at the love of God, it is unconditional in the sense he loves the world that he gave his only Son so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. This applies to all mankind. However, loving our enemy may not mean that we have to either condone their behavior, or even their persecution of us, in whatever form that appears. The fact is we cannot hate them, despise them, but we should pray for them, that they will come to their senses, and hear the voice of the Spirit wooing them to repentance. This loving our enemy is not embracing them with loving arms but loving them as God loves them. Although they will be judged for their evil deeds, unless they repent, and accept Jesus, God still loves them. Love does not replace justice, for justice is done through love. Just as a parent disciplines a child out of love for them, so God does with those who are disobedient. Still, we are not to hate the person, although we might dislike his behavior. Again, it comes down to living with grace and love. How can we distinguish who we should love and who we should not love? In the natural, it would seem it is easy to find or be found by someone we do not like. In the natural, it seems we can develop certain biases toward certain groups of people, even other Christian groups, such as those crazy Pentecostals, or those stoic Baptists who think they are the only ones going to heaven. We can get so upset over sports, political, or even economic rivals. In the natural, we may even have a bias toward other nationalities, or ethnicities without even realizing it. But do we see all people as a creation of God, and thus someone to be of value to God and therefore require our love and prayers. This may not be easy in the natural, in fact, it is not easy, at times, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Again, this is not the benevolent Agape love, but rather the social or moral agapao type love. Only God can love benevolently, as man is the benefactor of his love, yet we can exhibit a moral and social love of others because we know that God loves them. We have to live in the Spirit, and not in the flesh if we are going to follow this principle of grace and love.