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Good morning. In the semi-arid desert of Northern Kenya,
water is the key to life. When travelling north to visit students from
our college, which was in central Kenya where I taught for seven years,
I heard of prayers for water that had been answered. At Isiolo, this was
through the gifts of Christians in Germany. They gave money for
boreholes to be dug and water tanks to be built. This water was free to
all who came and was a sign of good news. Further north, at a place
called Kargi, a group of nomadic people had heard for the first time
about Jesus. They prayed for water in his name, and then acted on their
prayer. They dug where they had prayed, and found water. They really
did, and were later baptized in the very answer to their own prayers.
When we pray for ourselves, are we being selfish? When we pray
specifically, are we being too focused? When we pray for sustenance for
bread and water, are we being materialistic? ‘Give us this day our daily
bread’ in the Lord’s Prayer, suggests the answer ‘no’ to all these
questions. Jesus is urging us to pray for our daily needs – basic issues
of bread and water. The word ‘daily’ could be translated as ‘tomorrow’ –
tomorrow’s bread. Jesus is asking us to pray for tomorrow’s bread today.
We need it right now. There is urgency in this phrase. These basic
elements are often overlooked in our more complicated prayers. Without
them, we simply can’t live.
As the people of Israel were given manna in the desert with Moses, so
the One greater than Moses teaches us to pray:
Our Father, give us this day our daily bread. Amen.
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