After praying for God’s will to be done, Jesus then instructs us to pray for our needs (Matthew 6:11-13).

PROVISION: GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD…

Jesus instructs us to pray for “daily bread.” The term 'daily' is from the Greek word EPIOUSIOS which implies that God will supply our specific needs for the coming day. God cares for our present and future needs, promising to meet them.  

This concept of “daily bread” has a historical background in Exodus 16 (vv.4-5, 20-21, 29-30). God rescued His people out of Egypt and gave them manna daily for food, along with some specific instructions that the people disobeyed! We should work for provisions for ourselves (2 Thessalonians 3:10, 12), but like the Israelites, we also tend to put our confidence on the gift, and not on the giver, God Himself. Matthew 6:31-34 urges us to cease worrying for our Heavenly Father knows our needs. We are to pray day by day, acknowledging that God owns everything and will provide as we seek first His kingdom. 

PARDON: FORGIVE… AS WE HAVE FORGIVEN…  

In Jesus’ example of prayer, to forgive and to be forgiven are linked (Matthew 6:12,14-15). The basis of our forgiveness is that God in Christ has forgiven us and because we are forgiven, we also ought to forgive others. We will not understand what it means to be forgiven and to offer forgiveness when we do not see our own sinfulness.

Three examples of men who understood their sinfulness in contrast to the holiness of God are: Isaiah, who never knew his sin, until he encountered God in a vision, and arrived at the conclusion that he is “ruined”, because he saw the HOLINESS of God that contrasted greatly to his own sinfulness (Isaiah 6:1-5). Peter recognized his sin when he encountered Jesus and said “go away from me… I am a sinful man”. The Apostle Paul described himself as “the chief of sinners”. Like them, we all need forgiveness! 

Jesus  tells a parable in Matthew 18 about forgiveness. A king wanted to settle accounts with his slave who begged him for mercy. The king, moved with compassion, forgave the slave who owed him 10,000 talents! But when this slave met a fellow slave who owed him a hundred denarii, he choked that person in rage and put him in jail. Learning of this, the king rebuked the slave for his inability to extend the same mercy he had received, despite being forgiven for a much greater debt. This slave was handed over to the torturers. That is an imagery of our own condition. We must forgive others from the heart. This is supernatural – we need the Holy Spirit to empower us to do this.