It asks God day by day for the food and other present necessities that sustain life, trusting the Father's care one day at a time. It asks for more than temporal food, for Christ Himself and His word received into daily experience as spiritual food unto everlasting life. Praying it acknowledges complete dependence on God for every gift and meets His provision with gratitude and contentment. The request is not for self alone but for the whole human family, and what God gives is entrusted to be shared with the hungry and needy. God answers through sunshine and rain and harvest and human work, so those who pray are to cooperate by labor, pray daily in sincere faith, and live out the prayer in good works.
Prayer Setting and Form
The petition belongs to the prayer Christ taught His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, which describes the kingdom of divine grace rather than earthly glory, and which He later repeated when a disciple asked Him to teach them to pray as John taught his disciples, and again when the disciples, deeply moved at finding Him absorbed in aloud supplication after a short absence, said, Lord, teach us to pray. Immediately after that later repetition He illustrated its lesson in asking by the parable of a man going to a friend at midnight saying, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me and I have nothing to set before him, who first answers, Trouble me not, and refuses, but because of importunity rises and gives him as many as he needs. It was given in kindness and mercy after warning and cautioning against praying like hypocrites and using vain repetitions, to correct imitating the Pharisees and to help human infirmity by framing every human need into words with clear and definite instruction on how to pray.
The prayer is short and not in high-flown language but in simple words, simple and direct enough for a child to use and to study without being misled, directly expressing the soul's necessities and daily needs and showing that every soul has the privilege of telling the Lord his own special necessities and offering individual thanksgiving for blessings daily received. It teaches prayer as asking God for the blessing and needs of those gathered and trusting the heavenly Father as a child trusts a parent, with divine authority in Christ's teaching. Though short and simple in truth, when understood it embraces all that is essential for salvation and comprehends all personal and human needs, temporal and spiritual, with thanksgiving and gratitude for them, containing no useless words. Its few words comprehend all personal needs so that praying it keeps from asking amiss and gives peace to go forth to work, and the things it asks may be sought humbly, reverently, and with genuine faith to bring blessing, sweet peace, and rest. It is to be not only repeated and kept before the people but obeyed implicitly, showing that prayer may simply state what is needed.
It must be offered with understanding of its meaning and recognition of need, in sincerity with heart and mind and soul as heart-service to God, not as mere form or as long tedious prayers offered to be heard of men and to exalt supposed good works for praise. Offered in sincerity, even with no more words than this model prayer, it is more acceptable to God than many long, spiritless, faithless prayers that are a burden and not a joy to Him, and its words comprehend every human need yet are not a required limit on prayer. Believers need not feel confined to these exact words, petitions are not to be always limited to simply repeating this prayer, and it supplies one of all the things needed while with the rest of the prayer it is short yet embraces everything. The chapter belongs to the pure gospel given upon the mount, which is the explanation of God's holy law and sets the holy standard of character requiring loving God with the whole heart and loving the neighbor as God requires. That standard forbids mingling human wisdom with the divine, confusing minds about right and holy methods in business, and unjustly acquiring means at the expense of another, and calls for a cleansing and purging of the soul temple where that standard is broken. It shows God as the heavenly Father who requires His people to walk in the light He gives them, whose requirements are always reasonable and just, and who accepts nothing less than perfect obedience to His commandments, with failure to walk in that light revealed in the sermon on the mount as what was separating the Jewish people from God, darkness coming upon them in the same proportion as light had shone upon their pathway.
Meaning of Daily Bread
The petition asks God day by day for temporal necessities and present needs, especially the food essential to life. It expresses daily dependence on God for needed provision as part of a prayer that honors God, seeks His kingdom and will, asks forgiveness, and seeks deliverance from temptation and evil. Human needs are supplied from God's heavenly storehouse, and recognizing this dependence prompts earnest prayer. The request includes asking God to supply daily and temporal needs to a heavenly Father who knows what His children need and is moved by their petitions.
God's rule is one day at a time, asking each day for that day's bread in childlike trust as a little child trusts a father. It means daily and hourly dependence on the Father's care, guardianship, wisdom, protection, and unceasing love, receiving strength for that day rather than relying on self-sufficiency. Praying and living this way gives peace as faith fastens to Christ in perfect trust and grows by exercise, keeps the heart constantly drawing near to God so temptations are discerned and more easily resisted, and leaves no room for ruinous self-sufficiency. It means doing each day's work as in the sight of God and Christ and angels, cherubim and seraphim, with the Holy Spirit helping the memory, sanctifying every faculty, and keeping the need of dependence in mind.
The request is balanced by Proverbs 30:8-9: having too much can lead to denying God, while being poor can lead to stealing and dishonoring Him. It asks for more than the temporal food needed each day; it also asks for the spiritual food that brings everlasting life. That spiritual bread is Christ Himself, given at infinite cost, His word and life-giving words received by believing in Him as a personal Saviour, which strengthen the spiritual nature just as food strengthens the body. Partaking of Christ's flesh and blood makes the believer a partaker of the divine nature and joins him to Christ as a branch to the living vine, receiving life from Him, and no one could receive temporal food without the One who gave His life for the life of the world. It means asking God each day for daily bread in the spiritual sense as well as for all other blessings, especially continual growth in grace and comprehending and appreciating truth as it is in Jesus, so truth is brought into daily experience and learned continually in the school of Christ. Receiving this bread which came down from heaven sustains the piety and spiritual energy of the church, rich and poor alike meeting together to take sweet counsel of God by sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning the simplicity of true godliness.
The petition supports receiving food at least daily by asking God for daily bread.
Daily Dependence and Gratitude
Asking for bread for the day is an acknowledgment of dependence on God for provision. Every gift received is to be recognized as coming from Him and met with gratitude. When gratitude for His goodness fills the heart, a heavenly atmosphere surrounds the soul.
The substance of the prayer exalts God and teaches human weakness and dependence on Him as one's all, rather than self-exaltation. Its request turns the heart toward contentment with what God provides each day and submission to Him. It turns away from rivalry for position and recognition, and from striving for wealth and status and room for personal plans, calling for yielding the will to the Holy Spirit and willingness to serve in the place assigned.
Those who put God's service first and give themselves to Christ can ask confidently for what is required for each day rather than living in fear about tomorrow. God provides for His faithful children, even in hardship and famine. As food eaten today cannot sustain through tomorrow's trials, so today's light and blessings cannot supply tomorrow's strength, and God must daily give light and strength to meet new temptations and responsibilities. Praying and living this daily and hourly dependence in childlike trust in the Father's care, guardianship, wisdom, and unceasing love gives peace as faith fastens to Christ in perfect trust. That faith grows by exercise and keeps the heart constantly drawing near to God, so temptations are discerned and more easily resisted, and there is no room left for ruinous self-sufficiency. It means doing each day's work as in God's sight, with the Holy Spirit helping the memory, sanctifying every faculty, and keeping the need of dependence in mind.
The meaning of the prayer has a depth and breadth to be taken in and realized. When those who know it grasp its meaning, the church becomes what God desires, the light of the world, with less desire for form and ceremony and with principles planted in the heart that sanctify character. Disciples are to bring their daily needs before God and depend on Him for them, trusting Him to provide. Their petitions are heard, with the same assurance given to the first disciples.
How God Provides Bread
The petition teaches dependence on God for daily food and life's necessities, expressing trust in His care for human needs as shown in His clothing the flowers and grass. God continually answers this prayer through natural processes and many agencies by which seed grows and the harvest is supplied in due measure to meet what is needed. He provides the natural conditions that sustain crops and people — sunshine, refreshing showers, wind, and rain — for both the just and the unjust, and by these same agencies He purifies the atmosphere from harmful conditions that would poison it and destroy living things. His word imparts life to the seed, so that by eating grain people partake of that life and are brought into closer fellowship with Him.
Those who ask God day by day for temporal necessities including food are not to pray and then remain idle, for God gives them work so they can cooperate with Him in answering their prayer. The prayer Christ taught His disciples for calling upon Him in need is comprehensive and embraces everything for earth's inhabitants, including help in bodily pain and sleeplessness, and God mercifully relieves and helps those who pray in dependence and trust. The request for bread also illustrates the need to receive spiritual food from God in order to share the bread of life with those hungry for it, and God supplies those He sends to serve others.
Giving thanks for food at the table teaches children that Christ supplies what they need and helps them grow grateful to God for His gifts and blessings.
Sharing Bread with Others
The petitions are framed in the plural because they are not to be selfish or limited to one's own needs, and since those who call God Father belong to one human family they are to ask for others as well as themselves, including neighbors and all His children. What is received in answer is entrusted to feed the hungry, for divine goodness is prepared for the poor, and it is to be shared even with people in need who are unable to repay. God supplies what is needed so that His people may abound in good works, and such generosity brings a generous harvest with blessing and reward at the resurrection of the just.
When the prayer for daily provision is offered, God looks into the heart to see whether the one praying will impart of the same to others more needy than himself. He gives blessing in order that it may be given to others, and as long as a person yields as a channel through which His love can flow He keeps that channel supplied. Willingness to be merciful even as the Father in heaven is merciful is the evidence of connection with God.
Praying and Living It
The prayer is to be repeated every day, and it fittingly closes morning devotions after special private prayer has been presented. Offered in sincerity with heart and mind and soul, its few words comprehend all personal needs, keep from asking amiss, and give peace to go forth to work. It gives special evidence that Jesus is Helper and brings the rich grace needed for the day, and when need is felt the Author of the prayer hears those who pray. Its requests may be sought humbly, reverently, and with genuine faith, for it contains no useless words, and praying it brings blessing with sweet peace and rest.
It calls for short, faithful prayer from clean, converted hearts rather than many long, spiritless, faithless prayers, in simple words expressing the necessities of the soul and dealing directly with daily needs. Every soul has the privilege of telling the Lord his own special necessities and offering individual thanksgiving for blessings daily received, with strengthened faith taking hold of Christ. That faith trusts His promise that those who ask receive, those who seek find, and to those who knock it shall be opened, bringing His light, grace, and transforming power into all works. It is the example for public and social prayer, which should be simple, clear, comprehensive, brief, and edifying so that all may be edified. Prayer to God should be short, simple, and right to the point, asking plainly for the blessing needed by oneself and by those assembled then and there, telling God in soul need what is wanted as a child tells an earthly parent and trusting the heavenly Father as a child trusts its earthly parent.
Long, tedious, world-wide, oratorical, or sermon-preaching prayers that lecture God belong alone in private prayer, not in the assembly met to worship God, since public long prayers dishonor God, kill interest, and make meetings tedious. Lengthy personal burdens and the whole burden of the heart belong in the closet, while united prayer should be direct and suited to the immediate needs of those praying together and have vital power to bless and edify rather than be mere form without vital power. The prayer is given to all churches to pray, to study, and to live, not only to be repeated and kept before the people but to be obeyed implicitly. Though short and simple in truth, when understood it embraces all that is essential for salvation, having been given after warning not to use vain repetitions.
Practicing it is the whole duty of man, and its principles lie at the foundation of all right action and of the spring of all right action. Those who live it and carry out every phase of its principles become sensible men whose minds God Himself can control and guide, and they win a crown of life everlasting. Living this prayer brings into close contact with Christ, and at every step His living power is touched as heaven's agencies work on behalf of His followers. Repeating the prayer and then striving to answer it in the daily life, studying it throughout the day as a lesson of the highest value and answering it through good works, brings renewal of mind and heart by the Holy Spirit with strength to carry out high and holy purposes.
That renewal cleanses every defiled room of the soul temple, closes the windows of the soul earthward and opens them heavenward, refreshes the memory with Bible principles, and keeps the mind clear and pure to distinguish between good and evil. The prayer is to be added to every prayer, offered daily and then lived out during the day. Its lesson in asking was given in the Sermon on the Mount and repeated when the disciples, deeply moved by finding Him absorbed in supplication and by His prayers and communion with God, said, Lord, teach us to pray. Immediately after repeating it He illustrated its lesson with the parable of a man going to a friend at midnight saying, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend in his journey is come and there is nothing to set before him, who first answers, Trouble me not, and refuses, but because of importunity rises and gives as many as are needed.
The prayer asks for daily bread this day, hallows the Father's name, seeks His kingdom come and His will done on earth as in heaven, asks forgiveness of debts as debtors are forgiven, seeks leading away from temptation and deliverance from evil, and ascribes the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. It warns that forgiving men their trespasses brings the heavenly Father's forgiveness while not forgiving withholds it, for the Father forgives only those who forgive others. It therefore requires church members to receive with rejoicing and freely and fully forgive a brother who humbles himself, confesses sin, repents, and asks forgiveness, treating him as if the wrong had never been done. Ministers are to give spiritually hungry people the bread of life plainly in a way that enlightens about salvation and responsibility before God, giving nourishing truth rather than subjects that merely please curiosity or fail to guide souls toward decision.
It asks God day by day for the food and other present necessities that sustain life, trusting the Father's care one day at a time. It asks for more than temporal food, for Christ Himself and His word received into daily experience as spiritual food unto everlasting life. Praying it acknowledges complete dependence on God for every gift and meets His provision with gratitude and contentment. The request is not for self alone but for the whole human family, and what God gives is entrusted to be shared with the hungry and needy. God answers through sunshine and rain and harvest and human work, so those who pray are to cooperate by labor, pray daily in sincere faith, and live out the prayer in good works.
Prayer Setting and Form
The petition belongs to the prayer Christ taught His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, which describes the kingdom of divine grace rather than earthly glory, and which He later repeated when a disciple asked Him to teach them to pray as John taught his disciples, and again when the disciples, deeply moved at finding Him absorbed in aloud supplication after a short absence, said, Lord, teach us to pray. Immediately after that later repetition He illustrated its lesson in asking by the parable of a man going to a friend at midnight saying, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me and I have nothing to set before him, who first answers, Trouble me not, and refuses, but because of importunity rises and gives him as many as he needs. It was given in kindness and mercy after warning and cautioning against praying like hypocrites and using vain repetitions, to correct imitating the Pharisees and to help human infirmity by framing every human need into words with clear and definite instruction on how to pray.
The prayer is short and not in high-flown language but in simple words, simple and direct enough for a child to use and to study without being misled, directly expressing the soul's necessities and daily needs and showing that every soul has the privilege of telling the Lord his own special necessities and offering individual thanksgiving for blessings daily received. It teaches prayer as asking God for the blessing and needs of those gathered and trusting the heavenly Father as a child trusts a parent, with divine authority in Christ's teaching. Though short and simple in truth, when understood it embraces all that is essential for salvation and comprehends all personal and human needs, temporal and spiritual, with thanksgiving and gratitude for them, containing no useless words. Its few words comprehend all personal needs so that praying it keeps from asking amiss and gives peace to go forth to work, and the things it asks may be sought humbly, reverently, and with genuine faith to bring blessing, sweet peace, and rest. It is to be not only repeated and kept before the people but obeyed implicitly, showing that prayer may simply state what is needed.
It must be offered with understanding of its meaning and recognition of need, in sincerity with heart and mind and soul as heart-service to God, not as mere form or as long tedious prayers offered to be heard of men and to exalt supposed good works for praise. Offered in sincerity, even with no more words than this model prayer, it is more acceptable to God than many long, spiritless, faithless prayers that are a burden and not a joy to Him, and its words comprehend every human need yet are not a required limit on prayer. Believers need not feel confined to these exact words, petitions are not to be always limited to simply repeating this prayer, and it supplies one of all the things needed while with the rest of the prayer it is short yet embraces everything. The chapter belongs to the pure gospel given upon the mount, which is the explanation of God's holy law and sets the holy standard of character requiring loving God with the whole heart and loving the neighbor as God requires. That standard forbids mingling human wisdom with the divine, confusing minds about right and holy methods in business, and unjustly acquiring means at the expense of another, and calls for a cleansing and purging of the soul temple where that standard is broken. It shows God as the heavenly Father who requires His people to walk in the light He gives them, whose requirements are always reasonable and just, and who accepts nothing less than perfect obedience to His commandments, with failure to walk in that light revealed in the sermon on the mount as what was separating the Jewish people from God, darkness coming upon them in the same proportion as light had shone upon their pathway.
Meaning of Daily Bread
The petition asks God day by day for temporal necessities and present needs, especially the food essential to life. It expresses daily dependence on God for needed provision as part of a prayer that honors God, seeks His kingdom and will, asks forgiveness, and seeks deliverance from temptation and evil. Human needs are supplied from God's heavenly storehouse, and recognizing this dependence prompts earnest prayer. The request includes asking God to supply daily and temporal needs to a heavenly Father who knows what His children need and is moved by their petitions.
God's rule is one day at a time, asking each day for that day's bread in childlike trust as a little child trusts a father. It means daily and hourly dependence on the Father's care, guardianship, wisdom, protection, and unceasing love, receiving strength for that day rather than relying on self-sufficiency. Praying and living this way gives peace as faith fastens to Christ in perfect trust and grows by exercise, keeps the heart constantly drawing near to God so temptations are discerned and more easily resisted, and leaves no room for ruinous self-sufficiency. It means doing each day's work as in the sight of God and Christ and angels, cherubim and seraphim, with the Holy Spirit helping the memory, sanctifying every faculty, and keeping the need of dependence in mind.
The request is balanced by Proverbs 30:8-9: having too much can lead to denying God, while being poor can lead to stealing and dishonoring Him. It asks for more than the temporal food needed each day; it also asks for the spiritual food that brings everlasting life. That spiritual bread is Christ Himself, given at infinite cost, His word and life-giving words received by believing in Him as a personal Saviour, which strengthen the spiritual nature just as food strengthens the body. Partaking of Christ's flesh and blood makes the believer a partaker of the divine nature and joins him to Christ as a branch to the living vine, receiving life from Him, and no one could receive temporal food without the One who gave His life for the life of the world. It means asking God each day for daily bread in the spiritual sense as well as for all other blessings, especially continual growth in grace and comprehending and appreciating truth as it is in Jesus, so truth is brought into daily experience and learned continually in the school of Christ. Receiving this bread which came down from heaven sustains the piety and spiritual energy of the church, rich and poor alike meeting together to take sweet counsel of God by sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning the simplicity of true godliness.
The petition supports receiving food at least daily by asking God for daily bread.
Daily Dependence and Gratitude
Asking for bread for the day is an acknowledgment of dependence on God for provision. Every gift received is to be recognized as coming from Him and met with gratitude. When gratitude for His goodness fills the heart, a heavenly atmosphere surrounds the soul.
The substance of the prayer exalts God and teaches human weakness and dependence on Him as one's all, rather than self-exaltation. Its request turns the heart toward contentment with what God provides each day and submission to Him. It turns away from rivalry for position and recognition, and from striving for wealth and status and room for personal plans, calling for yielding the will to the Holy Spirit and willingness to serve in the place assigned.
Those who put God's service first and give themselves to Christ can ask confidently for what is required for each day rather than living in fear about tomorrow. God provides for His faithful children, even in hardship and famine. As food eaten today cannot sustain through tomorrow's trials, so today's light and blessings cannot supply tomorrow's strength, and God must daily give light and strength to meet new temptations and responsibilities. Praying and living this daily and hourly dependence in childlike trust in the Father's care, guardianship, wisdom, and unceasing love gives peace as faith fastens to Christ in perfect trust. That faith grows by exercise and keeps the heart constantly drawing near to God, so temptations are discerned and more easily resisted, and there is no room left for ruinous self-sufficiency. It means doing each day's work as in God's sight, with the Holy Spirit helping the memory, sanctifying every faculty, and keeping the need of dependence in mind.
The meaning of the prayer has a depth and breadth to be taken in and realized. When those who know it grasp its meaning, the church becomes what God desires, the light of the world, with less desire for form and ceremony and with principles planted in the heart that sanctify character. Disciples are to bring their daily needs before God and depend on Him for them, trusting Him to provide. Their petitions are heard, with the same assurance given to the first disciples.
How God Provides Bread
The petition teaches dependence on God for daily food and life's necessities, expressing trust in His care for human needs as shown in His clothing the flowers and grass. God continually answers this prayer through natural processes and many agencies by which seed grows and the harvest is supplied in due measure to meet what is needed. He provides the natural conditions that sustain crops and people — sunshine, refreshing showers, wind, and rain — for both the just and the unjust, and by these same agencies He purifies the atmosphere from harmful conditions that would poison it and destroy living things. His word imparts life to the seed, so that by eating grain people partake of that life and are brought into closer fellowship with Him.
Those who ask God day by day for temporal necessities including food are not to pray and then remain idle, for God gives them work so they can cooperate with Him in answering their prayer. The prayer Christ taught His disciples for calling upon Him in need is comprehensive and embraces everything for earth's inhabitants, including help in bodily pain and sleeplessness, and God mercifully relieves and helps those who pray in dependence and trust. The request for bread also illustrates the need to receive spiritual food from God in order to share the bread of life with those hungry for it, and God supplies those He sends to serve others.
Giving thanks for food at the table teaches children that Christ supplies what they need and helps them grow grateful to God for His gifts and blessings.
Sharing Bread with Others
The petitions are framed in the plural because they are not to be selfish or limited to one's own needs, and since those who call God Father belong to one human family they are to ask for others as well as themselves, including neighbors and all His children. What is received in answer is entrusted to feed the hungry, for divine goodness is prepared for the poor, and it is to be shared even with people in need who are unable to repay. God supplies what is needed so that His people may abound in good works, and such generosity brings a generous harvest with blessing and reward at the resurrection of the just.
When the prayer for daily provision is offered, God looks into the heart to see whether the one praying will impart of the same to others more needy than himself. He gives blessing in order that it may be given to others, and as long as a person yields as a channel through which His love can flow He keeps that channel supplied. Willingness to be merciful even as the Father in heaven is merciful is the evidence of connection with God.
Praying and Living It
The prayer is to be repeated every day, and it fittingly closes morning devotions after special private prayer has been presented. Offered in sincerity with heart and mind and soul, its few words comprehend all personal needs, keep from asking amiss, and give peace to go forth to work. It gives special evidence that Jesus is Helper and brings the rich grace needed for the day, and when need is felt the Author of the prayer hears those who pray. Its requests may be sought humbly, reverently, and with genuine faith, for it contains no useless words, and praying it brings blessing with sweet peace and rest.
It calls for short, faithful prayer from clean, converted hearts rather than many long, spiritless, faithless prayers, in simple words expressing the necessities of the soul and dealing directly with daily needs. Every soul has the privilege of telling the Lord his own special necessities and offering individual thanksgiving for blessings daily received, with strengthened faith taking hold of Christ. That faith trusts His promise that those who ask receive, those who seek find, and to those who knock it shall be opened, bringing His light, grace, and transforming power into all works. It is the example for public and social prayer, which should be simple, clear, comprehensive, brief, and edifying so that all may be edified. Prayer to God should be short, simple, and right to the point, asking plainly for the blessing needed by oneself and by those assembled then and there, telling God in soul need what is wanted as a child tells an earthly parent and trusting the heavenly Father as a child trusts its earthly parent.
Long, tedious, world-wide, oratorical, or sermon-preaching prayers that lecture God belong alone in private prayer, not in the assembly met to worship God, since public long prayers dishonor God, kill interest, and make meetings tedious. Lengthy personal burdens and the whole burden of the heart belong in the closet, while united prayer should be direct and suited to the immediate needs of those praying together and have vital power to bless and edify rather than be mere form without vital power. The prayer is given to all churches to pray, to study, and to live, not only to be repeated and kept before the people but to be obeyed implicitly. Though short and simple in truth, when understood it embraces all that is essential for salvation, having been given after warning not to use vain repetitions.
Practicing it is the whole duty of man, and its principles lie at the foundation of all right action and of the spring of all right action. Those who live it and carry out every phase of its principles become sensible men whose minds God Himself can control and guide, and they win a crown of life everlasting. Living this prayer brings into close contact with Christ, and at every step His living power is touched as heaven's agencies work on behalf of His followers. Repeating the prayer and then striving to answer it in the daily life, studying it throughout the day as a lesson of the highest value and answering it through good works, brings renewal of mind and heart by the Holy Spirit with strength to carry out high and holy purposes.
That renewal cleanses every defiled room of the soul temple, closes the windows of the soul earthward and opens them heavenward, refreshes the memory with Bible principles, and keeps the mind clear and pure to distinguish between good and evil. The prayer is to be added to every prayer, offered daily and then lived out during the day. Its lesson in asking was given in the Sermon on the Mount and repeated when the disciples, deeply moved by finding Him absorbed in supplication and by His prayers and communion with God, said, Lord, teach us to pray. Immediately after repeating it He illustrated its lesson with the parable of a man going to a friend at midnight saying, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend in his journey is come and there is nothing to set before him, who first answers, Trouble me not, and refuses, but because of importunity rises and gives as many as are needed.
The prayer asks for daily bread this day, hallows the Father's name, seeks His kingdom come and His will done on earth as in heaven, asks forgiveness of debts as debtors are forgiven, seeks leading away from temptation and deliverance from evil, and ascribes the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. It warns that forgiving men their trespasses brings the heavenly Father's forgiveness while not forgiving withholds it, for the Father forgives only those who forgive others. It therefore requires church members to receive with rejoicing and freely and fully forgive a brother who humbles himself, confesses sin, repents, and asks forgiveness, treating him as if the wrong had never been done. Ministers are to give spiritually hungry people the bread of life plainly in a way that enlightens about salvation and responsibility before God, giving nourishing truth rather than subjects that merely please curiosity or fail to guide souls toward decision.