Lord, Teach Us To Pray - Part Three

 

Luke 11:3

"Give us this day our daily bread."

    God gives His people Bread on a daily basis, just enough to get us through the day. When we are refreshed like this, we begin to grow in Him and gain strength in Him. Then there are the days when we take in so much Bread, so much of The Word, that we must have needs to spread it around, to share it with whoever is in our vicinity. For me, that's whoever is reading this. 

     Exodus 16:4 

Then The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether or not they will follow My instructions." 

    Back in those days, bread (Manna) from heaven was given to God's elect people. But after Christ came to us, it is revealed that He is The Bread of Heaven: John 6:30-35, specifically verse 35: And Jesus said to them, “I Am The Bread of Life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." 

    Coming to Jesus satisfies our hunger. Believing in Jesus satisfies our thirst. When the first is accomplished, the second is automatic. For when we come to Jesus, we come with hope. Hope for our salvation. Hope of being loved unconditionally. Hope for a better life than the one we had without Him. And we believe. 

    And when we believe on The Name of The Lord Jesus Christ, when we believe that He Is Lord, we know that we are committing to a loving relationship with and in Him. Jesus Christ is our Living Water, sustaining our thirsty souls with Himself, with His Spirit. We believe and we are Spirit-filled now. 

    But we keep nothing for ourselves. For when we become believers, when we become Spirit-filled disciples, we cannot, we must not, restrain The Spirit. He is The Living Water that flows from within us. Water must flow or it becomes stagnant and stinky and dead; it kills instead of giving life to all. John 7:37-39.

    So we pray, 

Lord, give us this day our daily Bread. Show us Who You are today. Reveal Yourself in Your Word and help us to grow in You that we might be Your witnesses today. We are not babies that You must feed us. Many of us are maturing in Your Word, for we spend much time in Your presence with our prayers. Continue to open our eyes to the newness of You and help us to feed others that they may grow in You, too.

In Jesus' Most Beautiful Name,

Amen.

     

Warrior of The Word - Ephesians 6:11

 

Ephesians 6:11

Put on the whole armor of God, 

that you may be able to stand 

against the wiles of the devil.

     The entire armor of God is Jesus Christ. The first layer is the robe of righteousness, our tunic. Once that is on we can don the rest of our armor. 

     Putting on The Armor of God is the one thing we must do for the rest of the Armor to be put on. Each of us, at some point in our lives, made the decision to believe in The Name of The Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. (and if you have not yet done so, we urge you to make a decision for Christ, for the time is short). 

     When we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, we enter into a covenant relationship with Him. He covers us, He fills us. 'In Him we live and move and have our being.' Acts 17:28a

     Romans 13:14 But you put on The Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

      Romans 13:12 The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on The Armor of Light. 

     We are a new creation in Christ, and as such, we have lain aside the 'deeds of darkness' and have put on The Armor of Light, for Christ is The Light, and we must carry that Light within us in order to see where we need to go. We never have to walk in darkness again. Though we go into the dark to reach those who are still in it, we do not walk in darkness because we have The Light to shine the pathway before us. 

     Our Tunic covers us like a wetsuit: it embraces every curve and skeletal structure, but leaves no room for excess. Why would we have need of excess in the flesh anyway, when we can have the abundance which Christ has promised us? John 10:10 "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

     When we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, the battle begins, for along with the rest of our Armor, targets are placed everywhere on us, which our enemy the devil tries to penetrate and knock us down. We must guard our hearts, guard our minds, guard our back, guard our feet, guard our tongue, guard our ears, and guard each other. 

     And now that we have our Tunic on, we can put on the rest of our Armor. Tomorrow we'll start that.