Week 3
Day 3

    Listen:

The Lord’s Prayer

Why should we ask the Lord for our daily bread?

Luke 1: 53. He has filled the hungry with good things.

Matthew 5:6. Happy are they who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be satisfied.

AR 323.3. “Famine” or “hunger” signifies the desire of knowing and understanding the truths and goods of the church.

Psalm 107:8-9
Let them confess to Jehovah His mercy,
And His wonders for the sons of man;
For He satisfies the craving soul,
And the hungry soul He fills with good.

AE 386.19. To “satisfy the longing soul, and to fill with good the hungry soul,” applies to those who long for truths and goods, “the longing soul” signifying those who long for truths, and “the hungry soul” those who long for goods.

Psalm 146:5-7
Happy is he for whom the God of Jacob is his help;
Whose expectation is on Jehovah his God,
Who made the heavens and the earth,
The sea, and all that is in them;
Who keeps truth to eternity;
Who does judgment for the oppressed;
Who gives bread to the hungry....

AE 386.20. “The hungry” mean those who desire goods; and as such are nourished by the Lord, it is said “Jehovah gives bread to the hungry,” “to give bread” meaning to nourish, and spiritual nourishment is knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom.

AC 5576.2-3. Hunger in the spiritual world or in heaven is not hunger for food, because the angels do not feed upon material food, which is for the body that man carries about in the world; but it is hunger for such food as nourishes their minds. This food, which is called spiritual food, is to understand truth and be wise in good; and wonderful to say the angels are nourished by this food; which has been made evident to me from the fact that after little children who die have been instructed in heaven in the truths of intelligence and the goods of wisdom, they no longer appear as little children, but as adults, and this according to their increase in good and truth; and also from the fact that the angels continually long for the things of intelligence and wisdom, and that when they are in the evening, that is, in a state in which these things fail, they are so far in what is relatively not happiness, and they then hunger and long for nothing more than that the morning may dawn for them afresh, and that they may return into their life of happiness, which is of intelligence and wisdom.

That to understand truth and to will good is spiritual food, may also appear to everyone who reflects that when anyone is enjoying material food for the nourishment of the body, his food is more nourishing if he is at the same time in cheerful spirits and conversing on agreeable topics, which is a sign that there is a correspondence between spiritual food for the soul and material food for the body. And the same is further evident from the fact that when one who longs to imbue his mind with the things of knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom is kept from them, he begins to be saddened and distressed, and like one who is famished longs to return to his spiritual food, and thereby to the nourishment of his soul.

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