The Lord’s Prayer: Our Basic Needs
Luke 11:1-4
This Sunday we conclude our series of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer as it is recorded in Luke’s gospel. Remember that the prayer is intended to teach us to pray. It is a model for our daily prayers. Jesus’ prayer helps us focus on the things that are important.

“Hallowed be your name.” Our longing in prayer is for God to be honored completely. We yearn to see this realized in the world and in our own lives. We want all we do, say, think, and possess to honor the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Your kingdom come.” Similarly, our focus in prayer is for God to cause the kingdom to come. We can hardly wait for the day when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. We are ready for God’s reign on earth to begin right now. And so, little by little and day by day, we seek to bring the entirety of our lives under God’s dominion.

But our concern is not only for God’s honor and kingdom. Jesus also teaches us to pray for our basic needs.

John Calvin observed that the basic division of the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer is identical. The first four commandments and the first two petitions focus on God. The remainder of the commandments and petitions focus on human relationships and human needs.

The Lord’s prayer in Luke does not multiply words. It gets right down to what really matters. Our first concern is God’s honor and kingdom. Following close behind are food, forgiveness, and deliverance.

While it is true that man cannot live on bread alone, it is also true that human beings cannot live without bread, without food. We must eat to live. Jesus emphasizes bread enough for one day. The prayer was addressed to the crowds who followed Jesus. Most of them would have been day laborers. They were paid at the end of the workday and earned enough to purchase food to last for only one day. Theirs was a hand-to-mouth existence. It is hard for most of us to identify with subsistence living because we live in a land of plenty and abundance. Most of us should probably pray, “Lord, don’t give us so much daily bread!”

Still the petition for bread reminds us of a fundamental truth. Our continued existence is based on divine providence. We are fundamentally dependent on God’s provision. John Calvin commenting on this petition wrote that “When we pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ we are acknowledging our creatureliness. We are saying, ‘We cannot sustain our lives.’ We are acknowledging our basic dependence on God.” When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are asking God to provide what we need to stay alive. For us in the modern world it might be adequate financial resources or health insurance or employment or affordable housing.

The next petition is for forgiveness. Our fallen nature and sins cry out for forgiveness. We were made in the image of God, but we have fallen from innocence. God’s image in us is marred and twisted. We need forgiveness for our sins. It is just as basic as our need for food. Without forgiveness we are destined to spend eternity separated from God and that is a living and endless hell.

Fortunately, God loves to forgive. The Old Testament is filled with examples of God’s forgiveness. In fact, the meta-story of the Jewish people is a story of forgiveness and restoration. Israel would forsake the LORD and worship other gods. God would chasten them by the oppression of the nations that surrounded them. Israel would cry out for deliverance and repent, and God would forgive and deliver them. Then the cycle of backsliding and restoration would begin all over again. Israel was changeable in their disposition towards God, but God’s nature is unchanging. It is God’s nature to forgive.

Do you remember the story of Moses in Exodus 34? Moses received the Ten Commandments from God on Mt. Sinai. The LORD descended in a cloud and stood beside Moses and proclaimed the name, “The LORD.” Then God passed by Moses and declared, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” The New Testament proclaims the same truth about God’s nature. “God is love” (1 John 4:8). As a result, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16).

When we pray, “Forgive our sins,” we are assured of God’s forgiveness.

Unfortunately, we are not as inclined to forgive others as God is to forgive us. It is hard for us to forgive, especially if someone has done us a serious wrong. We tend to hold grudges. We feed the embers of past injuries until they burst into a raging fire of bitterness and even revenge. We tend to have too high a regard for ourselves and too low a regard for others.

But Jesus reminds us that we are to forgive our neighbor as we have been forgiven by God. It is not the basis for our forgiveness, but the fruit of our forgiveness by God. God’s forgiveness softens our hearts to forgive others. If you are having difficulty forgiving another person, begin by meditating on all that God has forgiven you. Then you will be better able to forgive others their debts.

The final petition of the Lord’s prayer addresses another basic human need: the need for deliverance. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Do not bring us to the time of trial.” The Bible envisions a time in the future when God will unleash terrible judgments on the earth. In Mt. 24:21, Jesus foresees the coming of these days. He says, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be.”

Jesus teaches us to pray that we will not have to live through that time of trial. But I think the petition also encourages us more generally to ask God for divine favor. It asks God to spare us from terrible troubles in our lives. We might dynamically rend the petition, “O LORD, do not bring terrible trials into my life.”

These are our basic needs. We need sufficient resources to sustain our lives. God is able and willing to provide. We need forgiveness from God for our sins. God loves to forgive. It is God’s nature to forgive. But we also need to forgive others who are in our debt, people who have wronged us, slighted us, wounded us. As we have been forgiven, we must forgive. And we need deliverance from the trials and tribulations of daily living and from God’s judgments at that end of the age. Again, God can help us, spare us, or support us in times of trouble.

I encourage you to pray the Lord’s Prayer with understanding and fervor many times each day. Pray each petition individually. Pause and think about what you are asking for. Let the prayer shape your prayer life. I think Jesus’ prayer is very apropos for the times we are living through. In a time of social, political, and economic unrest and uncertainty, the petitions of the prayer are particularly appropriate.

What is most important is for God to be honored completely by the way we live, by all that we do, say, think, and possess. What is most important is for God’s dominion to be exercised over our entire existence so that God’s heavenly will is realized in the soil of our earthly living.

But God knows our basic needs too, and God wants to supply them: the need for sustenance, for forgiveness, the need to forgive, and the need for deliverance from trouble. We should earnestly seek these too.

So, each time you pray say, “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive our debtors, and do not bring us to the time of trouble.” In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen and amen!