one step: Matthew 6.6

Give us this day our daily bread…

The future hope of “God’s Kingdom come” serves as a beacon of light that anchors us in the right direction. When times are tough, when we experience loss, or when we simply need to see beauty, we can look to the future hope of God’s Kingdom come. It provides us with much needed perspective and hope in times of hopelessness and despair.

Jesus, knowing that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, not just far off, and knowing that the needs of today still loom despite their future promised fulfillment, invites us to ask God for our daily bread. Jesus, right after drawing our attention to the future, permissions us and recognizes our needs for today.

The translation in the original language of “daily bread” is unclear but some scholars believe that it means “the coming bread.” This implies that if you pray it in the morning, you are asking for bread today, and if you pray it at night, you are asking for bread the next day.* Either way, the prayer is for the meeting of immediate needs.

In this season, my wife and I are walking through a door into the unknown where we are being asked to trust God for His provision in the future and for the future. At the same time, we have needs for today that we cannot ignore. In the Lord’s prayer, we see that Jesus cares about both.

The challenge for us all as followers of Christ is two fold: 1) will we trust God that His Kingdom will in fact come? 2) will we trust God for the bread of today?

Different seasons of life challenge us in both of these questions. Sometimes trust comes easier than others.

This we must know: Jesus cares about the coming of the one-day, but present Kingdom as well as the today and tomorrow needs of bread in our lives.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to trust Him with your forever. Perhaps you do not trust that His Kingdom will come and all will be made right. Maybe you need to permission His Kingdom which is at hand to emerge in and through your life. Perhaps today God is asking you to trust Him with your bread for today and tomorrow.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 146-147, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 6:9-13) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 6.5

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Have you ever been afraid to pray that God’s will would be done in a situation? I know I have. There have been times that I so desperately wanted an outcome that I was afraid that God’s will might not align to my own. I was afraid that if I prayed for His will to be done, then the outcome would taste like the bitter flavor of disappointment.

I’ve prayed for loved ones who have died to live, and they didn’t. I have prayed for the dead to raise, and they haven’t. I have prayed for rain to stop, and it came anyway. I prayed for doors to open, and they slammed shut.

I cannot always understand or explain God’s will to the extent of why He does what He does, or why He doesn’t. This I know: despite my lack of perspective, He is good.

Sometimes praying that God’s will would be done feels risky. It requires that we lay down our will in the process. It requires that we lay down what we think would be best. It requires that we trust Him. It requires that we allow His Kingdom to come.

The idea of God’s Kingdom coming involves God moving to bring His Kingdom to fruition for us. This opposes the idea of us working to bring the Kingdom about for Him.* Too often ministries are built and careers are formed around a kingdom of our own that we label His. For His Kingdom to come, He has to move, and we must move with Him.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to surrender your will to His. Perhaps today God is asking you to risk trusting Him even if you don’t understand. Maybe God wants you to stop attempting to build His Kingdom with your own efforts. Perhaps He wants you to ask Him what He is doing to build His Kingdom and ask Him how you can be a part.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 145-146, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 6:9-13) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 6.4

…hallowed be your name.

To hallow the name of God, or to keep it holy, involves more than what we may understand. In the days of Jesus, a name was not just an identifier, but it spoke into the activity of the person. For example, Jesus was named Jesus because He would save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).* When Israel changed his son’s name from Ben-Oni (son of my pain) to Benjamin (son of my right hand), he wasn’t just changing his name, he was changing his destiny (Genesis 35:18).

As a young little man, my mom fought to make people call me “Benjamin” rather than “Ben.” More times than not, her battle embarrassed me. I wanted to go with the flow.

It took years for me to decide to take up that fight myself. I think I eventually picked it up because I realized that to take the fullness of the name apart was to truncate its meaning. This may not mean as much to other people, and it doesn’t need to. But, for me, I wanted my name to relate to the activity of a position of favor in relation to God.

The name of God isn’t just an identifier; His name relates to His activity. Because His activity is like none other (or holy), so is His name.

When we call God by His name, we are recognizing His activity in our lives and in our world in the past, present, and future. There is nothing like it and nothing like Him.

The prayer “hallowed be your name” is a plea toward the future that God would one day be recognized by all as holy. This plea of God to be recognized for who He is should begin in the life of the believer today.*

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to recognize that there is none like Him. Perhaps you need to repent for using His name lightly, or in vain as a simple expression. Maybe God wants you to live as if there is none like Him and allow Him to operate in your life in unexpected ways.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 144-145, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 6:9-13) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 6.3

Our Father in heaven…

Staring at an empty bed, the permanent absence of Jerry daily thrust itself like a knife into her heart. Words of “you’re worthless” and “you will never amount to anything” echoed through her mind each and every day that she walked by his room, glancing in. There was a time when she called him “Dad,” but Emily no longer had a father. Only painful memories.

…

The soreness of another night of drunken battle made concentrating in class difficult. Billy wasn’t one for confrontation, but his dad was. Bruises explained away by invented bicycle accidents and covered up by long sleeves in the summer served as bitter reminders of an inner vow he could not keep: I will never be like this man.

…

Stories like these echo the experiences of real people. Perhaps you’re reading them and are reminded of painful or disappointing interactions with your father. The reality is that each of us had a very human father growing up. The imperfections of our father coexist with wonderful traits that sometimes never emerge.

These experiences color our idea of the word “father.”

Even those whose father never escaped our definition of perfection, their father provided an incomplete picture of the word “father.”

When Jesus refers to God as “Father” in the Lord’s prayer, He isn’t inviting us to project our good and bad experiences with our own father onto God. Escaping this tendency is difficult as projecting past experiences upon present and future experiences is very natural.

When Jesus refers to God as “Father,” He is praying a prayer of respectful dependance and affectionate intimacy.* In the time of Jesus, fathers were seen as strong providers and examples upon whom their socially dependent children could depend. He prayed to one whom love and discipline could come from simultaneously.* He prayed to the one who sits with arms open wide, awaiting the run, jump, and embrace of His children.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to allow your definition of “father” to come from God and not your experiences. Perhaps you need to repent for taking your experiences and projecting them on God in a way that limits who you see Him to be. Maybe God wants to heal you of some of the woundings that you received growing up. Perhaps it’s time to talk to someone about it.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 143-144, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 6:9-13) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 6.2

…and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

In my immaturity, I am sad to say that I have too often shamefully considered the eyes of others while worshiping or praying. In talking to God, my heart was far from Him. Praying the “right things” or lifting my hands or not lifting my hands plagued my mind as I outwardly appeared to connect with God.

Jesus instructs in Matthew 6 that we should not pray like those who pray in public for recognition nor like those who pray according to formulas, seeking to manipulate God with our convincing arguments and many words. I have been guilty of both of these things.

The intimacy of secret prayer does not remove the opportunity for public prayer, but it reminds us as believers that in prayer, our audience is one. In that secret place, the one who matters sees our prayers. He sees our hearts in prayer, and He is willing and capable of responding to those prayers.

How is it that God hears prayers in secret? As this passage tells us, the Father sees in secret as He is in secret. When we draw away to pray like Jesus did so many times, God doesn’t just hear our prayers, but He is present in the secret place with us.

This implies that in those times where we pray or worship in public for the purpose of being seen for our piety, we are far from God; we are missing out on intimacy. When we seek to convince God to do things as the pagans did, we miss the truth that He is our Father who cares and needs no convincing to love His children well.

It’s important to note here that many of us (myself included) have experienced very difficult times in life where we have asked God for escape from pain or change in impossible situations. Those prayers received a difficult “no” from the Father that we are told is loving. The difficult truth for all of us is that sometimes the most loving thing a good father can do is to say, “no.” “No” can be painful and can feel overwhelmingly unfair. “No” can come at a time where life itself is in the balance, and the “no” feels unjust. There are plenty of times that I have not understood the “no” of God. Despite my lack of understanding, He is good, and I will trust Him. Often the perspective that the passing of time has lent me has helped me to understand. How much more will the perspective of eternity help me to see His goodness at work?

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to increase your meeting with God in the secret place. Perhaps you need to pray more in public as a part of a congregation, challenging your heart to point toward Him despite of those around. Maybe God wants you to abandon your need to convince Him and seek Him as loving Father. Perhaps you need to forgive Him for not doing what you think a loving Father should do during difficult times in your life.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

sign up just below for a daily reminder of the one step devotional. click here to return to devotional list.

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 139-143, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 6:5-8) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).