Today I want to look at the third phrase of the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus says: “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors…” If we were to visualize the Lord’s Prayer in 2 parts, the first part would be what God may properly expect from us (things like respect for God’s holiness, commitment to God’s Kingdom, and obedience to God’s laws and will), and then the second part is what we may properly expect from God (things like provision for our physical needs, liberation from our bondage to sin, and deliverance from the powers of evil).
Let us first look at the word "daily," and then next time we will look at the word "bread." This request centers around the understanding the word “daily.” The Greek word that is translated as daily is the word episousios. It is a word that Jesus uses to help us understand that we should be concerned with today. Give us this for today, should be our request. We do not know what tomorrow holds, so why worry about tomorrow? Let us pray for God’s provision today, trusting that if tomorrow comes for us, then it is a new opportunity to turn to God and trust God.
As James tells us in James 4:14-15, “Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring… Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’”
