Bible Study Notes: Prayer: Daily Bread Pt. 1

Our Daily Bread – Part One Matt 6:9-11
QUESTION: How has your understanding of prayer been helped over the last few weeks?

QUESTION: What have you found most helpful? What do you still find frustrating or confusing?

When we step back and see how Jesus is giving the disciples instructions on prayer, he doesn’t begin with their external problems or struggles to help shape them. He starts with their relationship with the Father. Before Jesus gives us instructions to pray for what we need, he first calls us to look to what we already have within us.

Jesus begins our focus for daily prayer on what we need most, to glorify our Father. He reminds us of our true purpose in life, the coming of the king of God. He points us to our ultimate promise of joy; the Lord’s will be done. All of these begin first within our hearts. From within, we will start to see change on the outside. We so often approach our life in the opposite direction. We assume that we will see internal changes if we change our external circumstances.

Jer. 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
Jer. 31:32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.
Jer. 31:33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jer. 31:34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

This was the promise of the New Covenant, which Christ brought to us. The power of the Spirit will change us from the inside out. The force of the law could never make its way into our hearts. From the point of our new birth, we are called to continue to walk by faith, trusting in the work of Christ. This is how we should view prayer. Daily depend on the Father for everything in our life.

QUESTION: What tends to be the focus of your prayers? What is Christ doing within your heart and soul or primarily external problems we face?

Of course, it is never wrong to bring all of our cares to the Father for him to comfort our hearts and possibly meet the needs we ask of Him. But I think it is essential to look closely at what Christ offered us as the model of our focus in prayer. What we need is an eternal perspective that starts with our faith. Our faith will then control our desires and affections and possibly change what we believe we truly need in this life. Of the areas of life we often assume will be our protection against suffering or tribulation is the local government. Some have gone as far as to believe that it is the goal of Christians to transform a government so that it could be part of the advance of the Kingdom.

The civil government has no direct role to play in proclaiming the kingdom of God. No such government must therefore be confused with the rule of God, and we should not think that the government can be used to further God’s kingdom. The civil authorities may be an instrument for good but only in a relative sense. If the government promises to bring the good society in an absolute sense, it claims a role reserved for God. Such a government represents the antichrist by attempting to take the place of Christ.
- Sigurd Grindheim
I know this is a controversial topic with much passion on either side of the debate. I mention this here and on Sunday to help us not fall into the trap of placing all of our energy in a system the Father never promised to us. The Kingdom of God is proclaimed not by nations but by the people of the Kingdom. This is why our dependence on the Father in prayer becomes our point of strength. We look to him alone to preserve us, not a nation.

QUESTION: Why is it so appealing to want a nation to be what advances the kingdom?

Does this mean Christians should have no involvement in government? We are called to be part of this world, just not part of the world’s passions and desires. We see in the Bible that several people of God worked in office throughout the history of the bible. Whatever we find to do in this life, we do it for the glory of God and to advance the kingdom's message. But our hope and promise are that the kingdom will grow through God’s means, which means it is the church.

Eph. 3:8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
Eph. 3:9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things,
Eph. 3:10 so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

If God's primary means to advance His Kingdom is His Church, we should think about how this should shape our lives. We pour our energy into many areas of this world that we believe will advance a part of our lives and provide comfort, freedom, and safety. According to what we learn in the Lord’s prayer and Matthew 6, all of our hope and protection comes from the Father using His word and Church. We all believe Christians should live disciplined lives rejecting the world's ways, but what are we disciplining ourselves toward?

QUESTION: Why do you think people struggle to trust that God's kingdom's greatest hope and advancement is found through the church?

QUESTION: How can we help each other trust the promises of scripture and make God’s advance of the kingdom through the church our greatest hope and mission for life?

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PRAISE, PRAYER, AND CONFESSION:
What can you offer to the Father in glory? What is a sin you need to confess?
What is a burden we can carry?
What can we take to our Father in prayer?