We've been thinking this week about the Lord's prayer on things unseen, and I sympathize

with you if perhaps you've grown a little inwardly and thought not again. If you hear

your minister or pastor say, we're starting a new series today on the Lord's prayer,

do me think, is there anything about this prayer I don't know? But sometimes knowing is not

really our problem. Our problem is applying what we know. The Kellogg company once ran

what I thought was a great TV advert for their conflicts. A young man sits down for breakfast

and has a bowl of conflicts, and then he looks up and says to the camera, I'd forgotten

how good they tasted. Now, things unseen doesn't do product placement, but I remember

having breakfast once in a hotel and thinking, I think I want to try the conflicts, not having

had them for years, and the words of the TV advert came back to me. I suppose I'd had

hundreds and hundreds of bowls of conflicts growing up in days when there were only maybe

half a dozen different breakfast cereals. And yes, actually I had forgotten how good they

tasted. Well, maybe these apparently disconnected comments are more to the point than you might

think, because maybe you've forgotten how good the Lord's prayer tastes. And perhaps

too you've forgotten to pray speaking of taste. Give us this day our daily bread. There's

been a lot of discussion over the years about this phrase daily bread. Sometimes it's been

applied to the Eucharist, and then scholars discuss the various possible meanings of the

word daily. Does that mean today's bread or does it mean bread for tomorrow? To be honest,

I don't think all that need bother is very much. What we're asking for here is for the provision

we need for each day so that we can have the daily strength to honour God's name, to

serve His kingdom and to do His will. And there are many kinds of applications to these words,

don't you think? We could underline the word as. It's not just me. I could be the hands that

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