This is part of an ongoing series on the Cornerstone Confirmation Curriculum we are developing at First Trinity Lutheran Church. (Main Confirmation Page)
God asks us to trust Him for all our needs. He alone brings forgiveness of sins to us. We respond by forgiving others, even when they don’t deserve it or ask for it.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Read Exodus 16:4-5
- Underline: the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day
- Margin: Daily Bread
Read Psalm 145:15-16
- Underline: you give them their food … You open your hand
- Margin: God provides.
Read Matthew 5:45
- Underline: For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
- Margin: God provides for all people.
Read 1 John 3:17-18
- Underline: let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
- Margin: We provide for others.
God calls us to trust Him alone to meet our needs. The phrase “daily bread” represents all the things we need to survive (including food, shelter, clothing, and more). While God physically provided bread daily for His people in Exodus 16, we understand this to mean a daily trusting—God is not forbidding us to plan ahead and prepare for the future, but rather to remember that even our best plans are dependent upon Him. So while we plan ahead, we remember to focus on God as our source of supply, not our own plan. In addition, God provides for all people, not just Christians, but He calls on Christians to also provide for others as we love them “with actions and in truth” according to 1 John 3.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Read Psalm 51:1-2
- Underline: Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
- Margin: God forgives.
Read Matthew 18:21-22
- Underline: “how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
- Margin: We forgive because God forgave us.
Read Matthew 6:14-15
- Underline: but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
- Margin: To receive is to give.
Jesus paid the ultimate price by dying on the cross so we could be forgiven. He alone is able to forgive our sins, so we ask Him here to do as He promised. However, we also ask Him to help us forgive others. Because God has first forgiven us, we are able—and should be willing—to forgive others. If we are unwilling to forgive others, then God will not forgive us.
Class Documents