Luke 11:3-4 - A life of dependence

Before we read the text, let me ask a question, “Are you living in dependence or just pretending you don’t need help?”

Most of us have been taught to live like adults who hold it all together. We worry about our 401(k)s while forgetting the God who says, “Seek first the Kingdom” has promised to provide for us. We carry around bitterness and fear, rather than resting in the pardon that’s already ours. And we fight temptation like it’s all on us, white-knuckling it, instead of walking by the Spirit Jesus gave us.

When His disciples asked Him how to pray, Jesus didn’t give them a ritual, He gave them something far better: a new way of life…a life of dependence.

• Dependence on the Father’s provision
• Dependence on His pardon
• Dependence on His protection

The Lord’s Prayer is not meant to be recited as a magic spell but to shape our hearts and words in conversation with the Father. And so, what I want us to see today is that living a life of dependence on God in every area of life will change your life.

• You might just find your anxiety start to melt away in the warmth of His provision.
• Your guilt and depression won’t define you because His forgiveness does.
• And those sins that feel unbeatable? The Spirit just might show you they’re not.

Let’s hear how Jesus teaches us to pray, and live, with childlike dependence from Luke 11:3-4.

Luke 11:1–4 ESV

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”

Have you ever watched a little child who is scared reach out to grab their parent's hand or cling to their leg, depending on them for protection and direction? This is what Jesus teaches the disciples through this pattern of prayer in verses 3-4. Here we see that just like a child…

Jesus wants us to live in continual dependence on our Father for provision, pardon, and protection

First, in verse 3, we are shown by Jesus that we should pray for God’s provision. Jesus gives us a pattern to pray, “Give us each day our daily bread.” This is a humble request made to our Father. When we pray this, we are also praying that no brother or sister would go hungry. That those in power wouldn’t exploit the weak. That we would not hoard what God gave us to share.

The word “daily” here is a rare and debated term that more than likely means “necessary for existence” or “for today.” This is an echo from the wilderness wanderings of Israel. Just as God provided manna for Israel in the exact amount that they needed for each day and no more (extra would go bad overnight), so God will provide for us our daily bread. Here, we are asking for just enough, like Israel with manna, and at the same time, we’re longing for the fullness of the Kingdom to break in, tasting tomorrow’s bread today.

This request for God to provide our daily bread, combined with Jesus’ temptation where He was tempted by Satan to create bread, shows us a profound truth…God is our provider. We must not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. It points us to Jesus, the Bread of Life, who shows us what it means to be truly human: to hunger for God’s Word above all…to hunger for Jesus.

But Jesus doesn’t just invite us to depend on God for bread, He invites us to live daily in the freedom of His forgiveness, as we see in the first half of verse 4. This is why we should pray for and live in and out of God’s pardon. Jesus gives us another pattern to pray, “…forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” Here, we are told to make a plea to God to release or cancel our moral debt. But this plea is not asked with fear or doubt. Because we are pardoned by our Father through the giving of His Son, Jesus to die on our behalf. And if there is any doubt about this, we can rest in God’s forgiveness of us because on the cross Jesus cried out, “Father forgive them…”

Yet, there is something subtle in and after this plea for forgiveness. It is a request for God to forgive us because we forgive other’s offenses or debts against us. Because God is merciful to us, we are not like the unforgiving servant in Jesus’ parable who was forgiven a debt he could never repay, but demanded a payment for someone who owed him very little comparatively. As John Calvin so chillingly said, ‘By this prayer we entreat God not to forgive our sins if we retain feelings of hatred in our hearts.’

When God was giving His law to His people He gave a picture of this by the 7 and 50 year jubilee. Here Jesus warns us that if we refuse to forgive, we show that we’ve never truly received His forgiveness. Grace received becomes grace extended, or it has not truly been received. Because we are pardoned through Christ, we should be patient with others and pardon them when they sin against us. We forgive because we are forgiven.

And then following this, in last half of verse 4, Jesus teaches us to ask for protection from temptation. We’re like children, quick to grab what we shouldn’t, slow to heed warnings, prone to wander. We will touch a hot stove or pan if it isn’t out of reach or we aren’t warned and reminded. We need to be protected from the evil within us. This pattern shows us that we must seek God to protect us from the evils that come from inside of us, against the sin that lurks within us, always ready to draw us away from intimacy with God.

Being tried and tested will happen, and we need these trials and difficulties to burn off the impurities in our souls. So, what we are praying is that we will not entertain and consider the prospect of giving in to sin. We are praying for protection of our hearts. Thinking back on Proverbs 30:8, we are asking for the grace to not be led into the sin of thinking that we don’t need God if we are led into riches, power, and honor. Or, for the grace not to lose all hope and become angry at God if we are led into poverty, disgrace, contempt, and afflictions. But as Jesus teaches in the fuller version of this prayer in Matthew’s Gospel, we not only need protection from ourselves, we need protection from the Evil One who wants us to doubt God’s goodness, fear our lack, and give in to temptation.

Jesus was led by the Spirit to be tested in the wilderness, just like Israel, but He was tempted by the Devil to show us His power over sin. He was led to the cross to pay for our lusts that lead us into sin, so we should pray that the Spirit keeps us living in Christ’s armor.

So Jesus gives us this pattern to help us walk as children, dependent on the Father’s provision, pardon, and protection. But if we’re honest, this is not how we naturally live…

We doubt God’s goodness, depend upon ourselves, hold grudges, and walk into temptation unarmed

But why? Like Eve in the garden, we’ve been tempted to doubt God’s goodness. We fear He’s holding out on us. So we hustle. We hoard. We try to secure not just our daily bread, but our 20-years-from-now bread. And yet, we don’t even know if we’ll be alive tomorrow. We act like God is more generous with the flowers than He is with us.

Like Lamech in Genesis 4:23-24, we demand justice to the nth degree. Why? Because we don’t trust the Judge of all the earth to do right. So we take justice into our own hands: holding grudges, demanding payback, and refusing pardon. We forget how much we’ve been forgiven. We doubt God’s goodness as Judge, so we try to be judge, jury, and executioner.

We want to act like competent adults: capable, self-reliant, and in control. But Jesus calls us to live like children: dependent, needy, and humble.
Deep down, we think dependence is weakness. And if we’re honest, we’d rather look like little gods to the world, saying, “I’ve got this. I don’t need you.”

Why? Deep down, we believe a lie: “I must provide (control), I must punish (justice), I must protect (self-sufficiency).” It’s autonomy. It’s fear. It’s unbelief.

How does this work itself out in our lives?

• Instead of trusting in God’s provision, we stress, scramble, and stockpile. We check our portfolios more than we pray. We live in fear and distrust but mask it as planning, responsibility, or wisdom.
• Instead of resting in God’s pardon and pardoning others, we hold grudges. We replay wounds. We become judge, jury, and sometimes executioner. We are bitter and vengeful but mask it as standing up for what’s right.
• Instead of living in God’s protection, we ignore temptation or think we’re strong enough to face it on our own. We reject being dependent upon God and His people and frame it as maturity or strength.

This exposes our pride: we think we are more mature than Jesus. This independent spirit in us shows just how much we need Jesus. And this is exactly where Jesus meets us, not with condemnation, but with Himself.

Jesus, the Bread of Life, gave Himself to meet our every need so we can depend on Him to forgive our sins and empower us by His Spirit to resist temptation

As kids, if we are going to trust our parents, we need to know that they love us and that they are strong enough to protect us. Jesus, the Bread of Life, shows us this by being our Provider, Pardoner, and Protector.

Jesus, the Bread of Life is our Provider. From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. He holds our very lives in His hands and He is the purpose of our lives. If we do not abide in Him we can do nothing. He is the Vine and we are the branches. We must draw our life, sap, from Him. Though we can “live” without depending upon Him, we aren’t really alive. He gives us purpose and meaning for our lives as we live to glorify our creator and not ourselves.

Jesus obeyed, submitted, and lived for God, showing us where true joy and purpose are found. By feeding the 5,000, Jesus showed He is good, powerful, and wise, our true Provider. He didn’t repeat the miracle, because He wanted us to feed on Him, not just bread.

Jesus, the Lamb of God is our Pardoner. He didn’t just perform a miracle to provide forgiveness, He endures the cross, bearing the infinite wrath of God, drinking the cup of wrath to the dregs, so that we might be forgiven. He didn’t just pardon us through raw will, fiat, but through action. He pardoned us at the cost of His own life. Jesus, on the cross, cried out to the Father a prayer for His enemies, “forgive them for they know no what they are doing.” When they deserved justice for killing the Son of God, Jesus could cry out forgive them because He paid the penalty for all who trust in Him.

The cross shows how the Father gave us His Son, the Son gave us Himself and took our sin upon Himself, and the Spirit applies this to us. If God would forgive us, such undeserving creatures, why would we not forgive others who only wrong us slightly in comparison to the outright rebellion and rejection of God and the destruction we do to His creatures and creation.

Jesus, the Bread of Life, provides for our deepest needs by giving us Himself. He secures our pardon by bearing the wrath we deserve and extending forgiveness we could never earn. And He protects us from sin and the Evil One by defeating them through His cross and resurrection, pouring out His Spirit to empower us to abide in Him with joy and strength.

Jesus isn’t just a model to follow. He died to pardon us, lived in dependence to fulfill what we fail to, and was resurrected to deliver us. Jesus, the Bread of Life, lived and died to provide for our every need, pardon our sins through His substitutionary atonement, and protect us from temptation by giving us His Spirit to empower our obedience in Him.

Jesus gave Himself to meet our needs, forgive our sins, and empower us to resist temptation. But how can we bring this about in our lives?

As we live by the Spirit that Jesus gave us, we rest in the Father’s care, extend grace to others, and seek His help in every temptation we face

We can repent of the lie that we’re in control. And instead, seek our Father for provision, because He’s good, wise, and powerful. We can also repent of our desire to be in control of our lives, since Jesus is the Bread of Life. And we can also repent of our desire to bring justice to others and rest in God’s forgiveness and justice, because we have been forgiven. And finally, we can repent of our fears of not having what we need, because Jesus protects us.

The grace of the cross assures us that we are fully loved, fully forgiven, and fully provided for, so the Spirit rewires our hearts to desire God's kingdom over our control, mercy over vengeance, and humble dependence over self-sufficiency.

Instead of striving to provide for ourselves, we depend on the Spirit and seek first the kingdom, trusting God to add what we need. Instead of obsessing over our 401k, we’ll care more about heavenly reward. Instead of demanding justice from others, we’ll trust God’s perfect justice and desire that Christ bear their wrath, as He bore ours. Instead of living in unforgiveness, we’ll forgive as we’ve been forgiven, reaching out to those we’ve wronged or who’ve wronged us. Instead of doing life on our own, fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil, we’ll pray for protection. Instead of trying to beat sin by grit or willpower, we’ll ask the Spirit for strength.

Because the Holy Spirit lives in us, gifted to us by Jesus, we can live in His provision, pardon, and protection in the everyday stuff of life.

When facing financial uncertainty or planning for the future, because we trust that our Father knows what we need and delights to provide, and remembering that Jesus gave Himself for us and won’t hold back what we truly need, we can live in His provision and choose to give generously or rest instead of hoarding or obsessively checking finances.

When a friend or spouse deeply hurts us, we remember how much we’ve been forgiven, and by abiding in Christ, ask the Spirit for a forgiving heart, we can initiate forgiveness or reconciliation with someone who wronged us, instead of lashing out and getting revenge on them.

When recurring moments of temptation come late at night or when we are stressed, because we know we’re not strong enough on my own and want to walk in the Spirit, through our union with Christ, by the power of the Spirit who is already at work in us, we can pray for protection daily and seek accountability in areas of temptation, instead of trying to white-knuckle obedience through duty.

And so we desire heavenly rewards over 401ks, want others to know Christ's mercy rather than seeking revenge, seek forgiveness and reconciliation instead of hiding or harboring bitterness, depend on the Spirit’s power instead of our own grit.

If you’ve never known what it’s like to live like a child, secure, forgiven, and protected, today you can. Jesus offers you a life of dependence and freedom, not slavery and striving. When He hung on the cross and prayed, “Father, forgive them,” He wasn’t just speaking about those nearby, He was speaking about all who would believe, including you. So trust Him. Lay down your life of duty, performance, and worry. Let Him be your provision, your pardon, and your protection. Let Him fight your battles. Trust Him as your King, and you will be saved.

If you already believe that Jesus is your provision, pardon, and protection, then rest in Him. Pray daily for Him to be your Bread of Life, and let His words feed your soul. Seek His kingdom first, and trust Him to provide what you truly need. Ask Him to forgive the ways you've been living like a grown-up, self-reliant and anxious, and receive His grace again. Let that forgiveness flow through you to others. Lay down the anxiety, bitterness, and pressure you're carrying. Stop trying to beat your sins alone, give them to God each day. Make a prayer card. Name the battles, lust, anger, distraction, and lift them to Him. Live each day in dependence. And as you do, you’ll find a freedom that words can barely describe.

Make the Lord’s Prayer your way of life. Live each day saying, ‘Father, I need Your provision, I rest in Your pardon, and I seek Your protection.’ That’s not weakness, it’s the Spirit-filled way of being human, the way of Jesus, to the glory of the Father.