“Therefore pray in this way: Our Father, who is in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
Matthew 6:9-13
Do these words look familiar to you? They are usually referred to as “The Lord’s Prayer.” The other day, while I was spending some time in prayer a disturbing thought occurred to me. Some of the prayer does not make sense. One example is the part that says “give us this day our daily bread.”
Why is this a problem for me? Because one of the names for God is “Jehovah Jireh” which has come to mean “the Lord is my provider.” So if He is my provider, why do I need to ask for the provision of food?
In the original Hebrew language it literally means, “the eternal one will see to it.” The name is found only once in the bible in Genesis 22:14 in which we find the story of Abraham preparing to sacrifice his only son on Mount Moriah according to the instructions of the Lord. But, as he was about to thrust his knife into his son, an angel of the Lord stopped him, and when Abraham looked up he saw a ram stuck in a thicket, which he sacrificed in place of his son. So Abraham called that place Jehovah Jireh.
According to the story, Abraham does not pray for the provision of another sacrifice; but what we do see is that he was simply being obedient to the commands of God, which in turn resulted in the Lord “providing the need”.
So my question is when we pray for the Lord to provide something for us, have we first obeyed His commands or instructions?
“Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”