This Day…

Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,

How often does God forgive our sins? How often is God at work for us against temptation? How often is God providing our daily bread? How often is God preserving and delivering us from evil?

For the answer, we look no further than the Lord’s Prayer. I had this epiphany, I guess you’d call it, as I was working through the Lord’s Prayer at our daycare’s chapel. We often rattle through those last four petitions of the Lord’s Prayer quickly, not paying it much thought, or maybe happy that we’ve finally gotten to the part of the prayer about us and that means that it’s almost over. But a closer look at those four petitions reveals something unique about them. The first three “Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…” are all related to each other, but each one forms its independent thought and request. But those final petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are different: “Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” These last petitions are a list, a list joined together with each other. They’re a list governed by those two little words near the beginning of the sentence: this day.

This day God gives us our daily bread. Every day the Lord is at work giving you all that you need for this body and life. Every day the Lord is upholding creation, keeping it all together, by the power of His Word. Every day He gives sunshine and rain to the just and the unjust. Every day He is working through farmers, ranchers, factory workers, grocery workers, construction workers, tradesmen, teachers, secretaries, janitors, musicians, actors, athletes, doctors, nurses, therapists, and yes, even politicians to provide daily bread for you and the whole world. And we pray for all of them each day we pray the Lord’s Prayer that God provides what we need this day & every day.

Every day the Lord is upholding creation, keeping it all together, by the power of His Word.

This day forgive us our trespasses. For we sin daily and much. We are hit by the guilt of those sins daily and much. We deal with the fallout of our sins every day. So God answers your prayers by providing you with His Word this day, every day. He gives to You the good news of the absolution that can be heard each & every day from pastors and the good news of forgiveness that you hear from your Christian brothers & sisters. He gives you the visible Word of your Baptism as the sign that He has washed your sins in the waters. He gives you the visible Word of Communion where the body & blood given & shed for you are given to you to eat & drink. He provides these means to you that you may hear & receive His forgiveness, not just on Sunday, but every single day, as long as it is called this day.

This day God leads you not into temptation. No, God doesn’t tempt anyone. But we pray that this day we neither fall into any kind of sin or vice that would defile the name of God that we have received through faith and in our Baptism. This day, every day, God is at work as a hedge around us. This day, every day, God is pouring His Holy Spirit into us to make our paths straight and put aside every sin that clings closely and keeps us from running the race set before us. This day, every day, God is with us, holding the temptation that is too strong for us to bear away. This day, every day, God is giving us an out from our temptation. And when we fall into temptation this day, every day, we are led back to the previous petition to find God still at work this day, every day, with His forgiveness and mercy.

This day, every day, God is pouring His Holy Spirit into us to make our paths straight and put aside every sin that clings closely and keeps us from running the race set before us.

This day God delivers you from evil. This day, every day He is at work defending you from every evil of body and soul, possession and reputation. Every day His hand is active in your life to protect you from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation. Your life is not a living hell because God is delivering you each day. I once heard an intriguing thought that the upheaval of the end–the sun going dark, the moon turning blood red, heaven & earth-shaking, valleys wrenched into the sky and mountains crumbling flat–aren’t signs of God touching them, but God letting everything go and letting the curse of sin ravage this old creation. He is at work every day to ensure this doesn’t happen. Yet. And even when it does, He will be at work to take His creation and give it new birth out of the fire like a phoenix to the new heavens and new earth that is free from sin, suffering, and death. He is at work every day to give you a blessed end, a death in faith in Christ that sets you for a place in that new heaven & new earth. Each day He’s at work through His Word, through your Baptism, and through His body & blood to preserve you in body and soul unto life everlasting.

You pray that God be at work in your life every day. And He is active this very day. This day He works for you, even if you don’t always see it. As the book of Proverbs teaches, it is the glory of God to conceal things so that we must see with the eyes of faith. We must see what God has concealed to our eyes, but reveals each & every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer. Your God is at work for you this day, every day.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Tim Schneider