Give us this day our Bread

We are continuing to look through the Lord prayer echoing the words of the  Jesus’ followers “Lord teach us to pray”. We all feel the amplified need to pray at differing times in our own lives, but what has happened over the last few months has amplified the need to pray many times over by the circumstances and needs around us. But Jesus has always been calling His people to press in deeper into his presence in our prayer life.

Give us this day our Bread

In 2009 I went on a mission trip to Manilla working with an organisation serving street children and families. We shadowed some of the staff in our second week and I went out with the street education team. We always took food for the children, and we spent time singing songs and teaching bible stories. After one of the gatherings I was asked to pray for the children. The amplification of the situation hit max level, I froze, what possibly could I pray as someone from the UK with everything,  for these precious little ones with nothing apart what they were wearing? I shot up a rapid SOS prayer to the Lord. As I knelt down surround by expectant little faces and the Lord let me to to pray His  prayer as I got to “give us today our daily bread”  I was broken in bits and with tears in my eyes realised the reality of those words for these children, and that God was using us to do exactly that, to give them that day their “daily needs” both physically and spiritually. They loved the food but they also loved Jesus more and received of Him each day as well as food. Their faith left me feeling impoverished in mine, and searching deeper for God in my own life.

As we pray those words, I pray we will understand them in a fresh way that not only does God provide for our needs as we ask, but also uses us to meet the needs of  others who also pray that prayer across the world.