Prayer Study Group Lesson Week Three

Week Three Group Lesson

“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

Our earthly bodies needs to be fed, as well as our spirits. Jesus knew what it meant to be hungry and tired. He knew what it meant to have a place to lay His head. He directs us to go to God with everything we need.

God is our Provider

Genesis 22:1-18 (NIV) 1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
   “Here I am,” he replied.
 2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
   “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
   “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
   “Here I am,” he replied.
 12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
 15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.”


In verse 14 Abraham calls God “Provider.” The Hebrew name for “Provider God” is “Jehovah-Jireh,” or “Ra’ah” and means “The Lord Who Provides.” The name is literally, “The Lord Who Sees, or The Lord Who Will See To It.”


When we have a personal need, God sees it and provides from His abundance. What we receive from Him may not be the expected, but we can be assured that He does provide.

We learn that God provided a ram for a sacrifice instead of Abraham offering his son Isaac. Here is a foreshadowing of Jesus being the perfect sacrifice. He provided again for you and me when Jesus paid the ultimate price for our transgression.

“Give us this day our daily bread” means two things:
1. Our daily needs to be met.
2. Our eternal need for the Bread of Life.

Our Daily Needs
Matthew 6:25-34 (Message) 25-26"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
 27-29"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
 30-33"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
 34"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.


This illustration that Jesus gives teaches us:
Don’t worry.
Look around at how God provides.
Understand how valuable you are to Him.
Don’t get caught up in how you appear to others.
The world runs after the material.
God provides for our exact need.
In order to receive from God’s hand, we must seek Him out as our Provider God.


Philippians 4:19 (NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Our Eternal Needs
We find God’s riches in His Son Jesus. Not only are our physical needs met, our spiritual needs are met in Him. He is our Daily Bread, He is our eternal Bread. He provides for our salvation and gives us eternal life in Him.

John 6:32-40 (NIV) 32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
 34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

It is only through Jesus that we receive eternal life. There is no other way. We must partake from God’s hand the provision of Christ as the Bread of Life.

Jesus taught us in “The Lord’s Prayer” that He will provide for our daily needs and for our eternal ones as well. Our perception of how we are provided for may be different from what He gives us.
We should seek in the Eternal. Seek God. He will provide.

He is Jehovah-Jireh our Provider!