🙌 Father's Glory 1st Jn 7:18 🙏 Then Our Needs Added (His Provision, Our Relationship to God & Others, Protection), Matt 6:9-13; c.f., Matt 6:33...

[Chrysostom]

You come asking according to the pattern our Lord delivered, and rightly you seek first the glory of the Father, His name honored, His kingdom come. That is the true ordering: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Yet when you pray, “Give us our daily bread,” do not let this prayer become a pretext for making provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. To ask for bread is prudent, for we need sustenance. But to go beyond necessaries, to light up the flame of desire in the belly or in softness of life, this is not provision for health but fuel for wantonness. Use a little wine, as the apostle counsels, but for the stomach’s sake; care for the flesh so that it serves you, not so that you serve it through drunkenness, gluttony, or effeminate living. The present life is a dream, and its pleasures vanish with the waking. Moderation is the medicine of the soul.

When you plead, “Forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” know what blessedness you ask. The prophet pronounces those blessed whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. If the mere removal of punishment brings such glory, how much greater the honor for those who, by grace, not only receive forgiveness but also learn to forgive? Yet remember, the mercy you ask must be shown. If you will be comforted, mourn over your misdoings; and think not this a dark saying, for God comforts the mourner with a consolation far beyond the weight of sorrow. Blessedness belongs to the forgiven, but you must become an imitator of that forgiveness toward others.

As for the petition, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” do not shrink when temptations come. Not all temptations are from the evil one seeking to ruin you; many are allowed by God for your profit. The faithful God will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able, but with every trial He makes a way of escape. Why does He not remove the thorn in the flesh entirely? That you may flee constantly to His side, as a child to a mother’s bosom. Tribulations and dangers polish the saints, Joseph, Job, David, and all who ever won crowns of peculiar glory were first tried as by fire. For this cause God sometimes delays deliverance, not to deny you, but to teach you perseverance. Even a small temptation is not bearable without His assistance, yet He gives patience and brings speedy release in due season.

Do you see, then, how this prayer encompasses all? You ask for provision: learn to be content with daily sustenance, not excess. You ask for forgiveness: practice the same toward every debtor. You ask for deliverance from evil: do not dread the test, for the One who allowed it is faithful, and His power makes you stronger, more tempered than steel. Let your eyes be fixed on the kingdom, for His is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

 

[Silas]

Your heart is already leaning in the right direction when you set your prayer in the order that Jesus himself gave us. So often we treat prayer as a way to get our own wishes granted, but the model our Lord taught does something far greater: it reorders our desires until they match what God is already doing. The first concern is always the Father’s name, his kingdom, and his will on earth as it is in heaven. When we begin there, everything else falls into its proper place.

The request you’ve lifted up follows that same path, and I want to encourage you to keep pursuing it. Prayer is not a list of demands we hand to God; it is a living response to what he has first made known in our hearts. He initiates, he reveals his purposes, and then we answer back by agreeing with him. That is why Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and all these things, our daily bread, our relationships, our protection, will be added to us.

Asking for daily bread covers more than food. It includes every necessary provision to sustain life, and it comes with a childlike trust that our Father will supply what we need tomorrow as he does today. This is not a call to store up anxiety, but to depend on him one day at a time. Forgiveness then deals with the deepest need of the soul. It is not enough to receive mercy; our prayer teaches us to extend it. The heart that genuinely asks “forgive us our debts” is a heart that has already released its own debtors, because grace received always reshapes the way we treat others.

The petition “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” is a sobering one. It recognizes that apart from God’s hand, we are easily drawn toward things that pander to our flesh and ultimately lead to grief. Many stories I have heard began with someone turning aside from God’s path, convinced that a little compromise would bring joy, only to find wreckage at the end. Praying for deliverance from the evil one is therefore a prayer of humility, asking God to guard us from what we cannot see or resist in our own strength.

What you are doing is not just reciting words but stepping into the rhythm of true prayer: worship that adores God’s greatness, petition that confesses your own need, and intercession that yearns for his kingdom to break into this broken world. And the movement always circles back to glory. “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” is not a throwaway line; it is the great returning note. Prayer starts with God and ends with God. When we grasp that, our requests become less about bending circumstances to our comfort and more about seeing his will accomplished, whether he delivers us from the trial or walks us through it in a way that makes his power plain.

So take confidence. This is not a riddle to be unlocked but a relationship to be lived. If you are his child, you have access with boldness. He desires to bless you, to keep you from evil so it may not grieve you, and to shape your life around his kingdom. Keep praying in this manner, not as a formula repeated by rote, but as a living pattern that anchors your soul in his purposes. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much, not because of eloquent words, but because God honors a heart aligned with his own.