10 November 2019
Two-Minute Features | 17 November 2019 | 03 November 2019

Praying God Bestows Good for Others (TMF:1260)

Friday, November 15, 2019
Peace to Live By: Praying God Bestows Good for Others (TMF:1260) - Daniel Litton
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       So while “Give us this day our daily bread” shows that the food we need to live our lives is important, it’s also true that we have a lot of other requests, needs, that we want God to give us, both on a daily basis as well as broader needs. We are to pray then that God will give us the food we need for our day, but we can also note that it is good for us to pray for the other needs that we have. One need, for instance, is daily strength. We can all use God’s strength to help us through our days—to help us be obedient to him and to stay on the right track. So, we can request of God that he give us our daily strength. We also want daily wisdom so that the things we think about and the choices we make are right decisions, ones that are pleasing to God and beneficial for us. On a more broader, grander, or specific scale, we might have requests that pertain to specific people or of which pertain to larger needs we individually have. Like, we might have an ongoing prayer request for a family member that we would like to be saved, and we continually bring this request to God. Or, we might have a personal need, like that we would like to find the right someone and get married.

It's Important to Give God Proper Thanks (TMF:1259)

Thursday, November 14, 2019
Peace to Live By: It's Important to Give God Proper Thanks (TMF:1259) - Daniel Litton
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       Really, when Jesus says, “Give us this day our daily bread,” I think we find ample room under this section whereby we can give God thanks for the good things he has given us. Certainly Jesus wants us to give thanks to God. Remember, in Luke 17 when Jesus cleansed the ten lepers, there was only one of them who came back to Jesus to say thanks to him. Jesus was disappointed by the fact that the other nine did not return to give thanks, but that only one person came back to thank him. The Apostle Paul told the Philippians, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6, ESV). So he noted, as did Jesus also in his sermon here, that we are not to worry about anything but to give everything to God in prayer and supplication. And we are to do this with an attitude of thanksgiving. God definitely wants us to be thankful. So while “Give us this day our daily bread” shows that the food we need to live our lives is important, it’s also true that we have a lot of other requests, needs, that we want God to give us.

As Christians, Many Good Things are Ours (TMF:1258)

Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Peace to Live By: As Christians, Many Good Things are Ours (TMF:1258) - Daniel Litton
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       We have Christ—if we are Christian, the forgiveness of our sins through his shed blood, and a restored relationship with God. We have been made a new creation, given a new life, given the very Spirit of God in our bodies, so that we can have the power to live out a life that God is pleased with and recall his Word in our hearts. We have valuables, rewards, waiting for us in Heaven as we work for God’s kingdom, as we are obedient to God in good works and following that which is good. So God gives us much, and certainly we have much to be thankful for in our lives. And speaking of giving thanks to God for the good things that we do have, or are going to have in the future, I think that as we have read through our Lord’s prayer front to back we might have noticed what seems to be an absence of a place to say thanks to God. I really don’t think we see that absence here. Really, when Jesus says, “Give us this day our daily bread,” I think we find ample room under this section whereby we can give God thanks for the good things he has given us. Certainly Jesus wants us to give thanks to God.

God Does & Will Give Us Plenty Good Things (TMF:1257)

Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Peace to Live By: God Does & Will Give Us Plenty Good Things (TMF:1257) - Daniel Litton
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       So, we can ask God for anything that we need, or really even anything that we think we want in our lives. Now, that doesn’t mean God will give us whatever we ask, but it’s not wrong to ask for something from God, as long as we know our motive is correct in our asking. We shouldn’t ask for things from God with a wrong motive in our hearts. Notice how Jesus used the terminology “Give us.” He uses the word ‘give’ here. Indeed, it is true that everything we have in our lives, everything that is good, and everything that we are going to get that is good, is in fact a gift from God. And we also know from Romans chapter 8 that God works all things in our lives together for the good, for those of us who love him and those of us who have been called according to his purpose. So, even bad things that come to us in our lives are worked out for our own, personal good from God himself. Nevertheless, we certainly have obtained a lot of good things in our lives. We have Christ—if we are Christian, the forgiveness of our sins through his shed blood, and a restored relationship with God.

We Ask God for What We Need & Want (TMF:1256)

Monday, November 11, 2019
Peace to Live By: We Ask God for What We Need & Want (TMF:1256) - Daniel Litton
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       Next, we read the phrase from our Lord Jesus “Give us this day our daily bread.” When Jesus was here during his earthly ministry, he told his followers to ask God on many different occasions for the things they needed in life. Recall, later here in the Sermon on the Mount, the sermon of which we find the Lord’s Prayer here, he said in chapter 7: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7, 8, ESV). Now, here in the Lord’s Prayer we are told to ask God for our daily bread, the daily need of food that we have to have to live—to stay alive. But I think there is more to this phrase here. Again, in Matthew 7 Jesus gave no stipulation on what we are to ask God for. So, we can ask God for anything that we need, or really even anything that we think we want in our lives. Now, that doesn’t mean God will give us whatever we ask, but it’s not wrong to ask for something from God, as long as we know our motive is correct in our asking.