"Daily Bread", Plenty Enough: Practicing Prayer (2)

Practicing
Prayer (2): “Daily Bread”, Plenty Enough  

2014/09/14
Christ Church, Mountain Top

Prayer,
Psalm 104 (selections)

Children,
Exodus 16

Message, Matthew
6.5-13, 31-34; Matthew 14.14-21

Lord’s
Prayer – Our Father

      Last week: Our Father … on earth, as it is
in heaven

      Practice: how we are transformed

      Post the Lord’s Prayer, pray it daily (or
more)

      Pray with your body – hands raised –
praise, priority

Structure
of the prayer

      3 petitions (name, kingdom, will)

      3 petitions (food, forgiveness,
deliverance)

      In the middle: “On earth as it is in
heaven”

“On earth, as it is in heaven”: Spiritual
versus Spirtualizing

      So heavenly minded as to be no earthly
good?

            I’m thirsty … for the Lord (Michael
Junior)

            It’s windy today … the wind blows …
so is everyone …

      But we believe in resurrection – not just immortality
of soul

      And, believe in creation – “it is good”

      Timothy Keller: the most material of faiths

Prayer
… spiritual, not spiritualizing

      Translation of “epiousion” (daily) (Peterson,
147-150)

            A “Holy Ghost” word?

                  (500 of the 5000 words in the
NT were unique)

            “supersubstantial” (Origen)

            Oxyrhynchus, 1897

                  Daily = today’s, fresh

Enough, “today’s bread”

      Discernment: need vs want

      Anxiety: we do not need tomorrow’s bread
today

      Uncertain future AND confidence today

      “Your Father knows what you need before
you ask him” (Mt 6.8)

      “Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Mt
6.34)

            George Muller, milk truck

      Enough – Debt?

Plenty, “fresh bread”

      Feeding 5000 …

            Only 12 baskets of leftovers … not
much, actually (necessity)

      What is enough for one is multiplied to be
enough for 5000+

            “You give them something to eat”

      Plenty – Prosperity? (more)

Work – God’s top way to provide our
daily bread (& bread for others)

      Built into rhythm of creation – work/sabbath

            “on earth as it is in heaven”

      Forget that it is a gift

            To be able to work

            To have a job

            To enjoy the people you work with
and the work you do

      Forget that it is a gift, and become
dependent – on effort, boss

      This prayer re-orders our relationship
with work

A
work blessing (Psalm 90:17)

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of
our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.

A success prayer (1
Chronicles 4:10, of Jabez)

Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be
with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.

Resources:

      Eugene H. Peterson. 2006. Eat This Book: A conversation in the art of
spiritual reading. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.