Many of you can quote what is commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer” or the Lord’s model prayer recorded in Matthew 6:9-13,

“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

How To Use Prayer to “Be Healthy Now”

The Lord’s instruction to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” is a reflection of a passage recorded earlier in the Scriptures: Proverbs 30:7-9. Since this passage is also directed to the Lord, it may be viewed as a prayer. But what is especially intriguing about this passage is that it tells you why to pray about your “daily bread.”

Look carefully at verse 9 and think about these questions:

• How can “being full” affect my view of God?
• Another way of asking the same question is to ask, “How does my feeling of fullness affect my faith?“

As I noted in an earlier post, food may be the object of our faith — and we call that idolatry. Anything that we substitute for God is an idol.
So Proverbs 30:9 “connects the dots” for us in this respect. The Message of the Scriptures helps us to see our motives clearly: abundance and overeating can produce feelings that cause us to deny the Lord and question His Message.There are some simple, personal applications to test yourself here.

• Which one means more to you, prayer or pizza?
• Meat or God’s Message?
• Snacks or the Scripture?
• Being full or being faithful?

When you put it in this frame of reference, you can see your life more clearly. But a simple choice here can help you in the “Be Healthy Now” challenge. If you see yourself clearly in the mirror of God’s message — understanding that good food means far more to you than faith in God — then you can have a powerful Ally in God Himself. You see, the One who said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,” understands exactly how to overturn idolatry. The Old Testament is full of stories of how He did this. If you and I would tell the truth about our overeating and humble ourselves under the Lord’s Hand, He can become our Ally in winning this battle. Why not pray “The Provision Prayer” of Proverbs 30:7-9 to see how the Lord can help you in your dieting battles?

Pastor Gordon Dickson, Calvary Baptist Church, Findlay, Ohio

www.cbcfindlay.org