Deep Philosophical Musings In the Form of Images (or not)...

Time for a little bit less serious of a post...

These were from during a period of unemployment, hence too much time (and an old carrot) on my hands:

Give us today our daily bread (and more?)

“Give us today our daily bread.”

How do we understand this request, and how do we pray it?

Consider alongside it the following proverb:

Two things I ask of you, LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30:7-9a, NIV on biblegateway)

Think of the dangers of wealth or fame or gratification of all our perceived desires for money/recognition/food/pleasure (the lives of many superstars as a sad example of this); might we not wisely ask for just enough? When we are engaged in this prayer, do we sometimes find ourselves asking, “Give me today all my wants and ambitions” rather than asking for simply our “daily bread?”

God is rich in His blessings, and certainly bestows wealth on some (not a bad thing, I believe, if God grants it, but something in which there is also great responsibility, and something deeply dangerous to desire after and form one’s life around). There is wisdom in the proverb above, for earthly wealth can all too easily cause us to despise real wealth—the knowledge of God and right relationship with Him through Jesus.

Maybe, in praying this part of the Lord’s Prayer, we ought to be asking God not only to give us what we need, but to also withhold what would be harmful to us.