The Rule of the Kingdom

I don’t know about you, but I have a weakness for bread. I can resist a dessert, but freshly baked bread with melted butter is very hard to stay away from. And when it comes to biscuits—good biscuits—I am ruined.

For first-century Jews, bread was a staple of their diet. Pretty much every meal involved bread. It was essential, and everyone utilized it every day. Yet when the Bible speaks of "our daily bread," it isn’t just speaking of that particular food item; it’s speaking of food in general.

When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11), He was teaching them to pray, in effect, "Lord, give me the things I need in life." It is speaking of God’s provision. We need to ask God to provide for our needs.

C. H. Spurgeon said, "Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom."

God wants us to come before Him in prayer and request things. This is clearly taught in the Scriptures. James 4:2 tells us, "You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask." We may not have certain things in our lives because we have failed to ask God to provide them.

Having established the fact that God provides, it does not mean we should sit around, remain inactive, and not work. When we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," we’re acknowledging that everything we have comes from God, and everything we need in the future must come from Him. It means we are willing to say, "Lord, help me with these things."

We need to pray daily for God’s provision in our lives.