March 14 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Matthew 6:1-15:

¹Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
²Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
³But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
⁴That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
⁵And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
⁶But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
⁷But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
⁸Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
⁹After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
¹⁰Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
¹¹Give us this day our daily bread.
¹²And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
¹³And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
¹⁴For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
¹⁵But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Devotional

When we ask God to give us our bread, we do not imply that He does not require us, when we are able, to labor for that bread. We do not intend to give up our work and wait for bread to drop into our mouths. Paul said, "If any will not work, neither let him eat." God would have us employ means, He would have us work to earn our daily bread and to provide for those who depend on us.

We should not, however, fall into the opposite error - of looking upon the means and our labors as if they were all that mattered. Above all, we must not look upon them as if they were independent of our sovereign God. Even though, as a reward of our labors, we may now have bread enough and to spare, even though our bread for the coming day and for many days to come may seem to be stored away and assured, we must never fail to call upon our heavenly Father daily for that bread and to ask Him to give us this day our daily bread.

Our God rules all things. On Him we depend for life, health, and the ability to work, for opportunity, for the means themselves, for the fruits of our labors - indeed, for every necessary thing. By a stroke of His providence all our material goods can be wiped away in a moment. In His sovereign working, "they that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased." We must acknowledge that every good and every perfect gift comes from God, and we must pray, "Give us this day our daily bread."

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)