Give Us Our Daily Bread Today

[Read Matthew 6:9-13]

When I think back over a large portion of my life and think about the vast majority of the prayers I’ve prayed, they could typically be summed up in one word: HELP! I’m sure many of you have been there too. You find yourself in a really difficult situation where you don’t know what to do, you know you can’t do it on your own, so you cry out to God for help. Maybe you’re in a really difficult relationship and have no idea what to do about it, so you cry out for help. Maybe you’re in a ton of pain and don’t think you can continue, so you cry out for help. Maybe you have a bill coming up and you have no idea how it’s going to get paid, so you cry out for help. I think the vast majority of our prayers are crying out for help from God—which is the cry of this portion of the Lord’s Prayer—Give us this day our daily bread. 

Yet, before we dive deeper into this portion of the prayer, I want to make sure we don’t forget what’s already been covered. Remember what I’ve been continually saying throughout this series: Every petition at the beginning has to affect the way we pray the rest of this prayer. So, when we pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” we must remember that we’re praying to a Heavenly Father who is willing and able to provide everything we need. We must remember that we’re praying to a Heavenly Father who deserves all the glory, honor, and praise AND a Heavenly Father that we want to receive all the glory, honor, and praise. We have to remember that we want His kingdom to come on earth and his will be done on earth, as we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” 

This petition—request—is not disconnected from everything we’ve covered so far. We must learn how to pray, “Heavenly Father, give us today our daily bread” or “Give us today our daily bread so that your name would be glorified throughout the earth” or “Give us today our daily bread so that your kingdom would come and your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This changes the way we pray this portion of our prayers because it reminds us that we’re not just wanting to get our daily bread for ourselves, but we’re wanting to receive our daily bread for the purposes of glorifying God, seeing his kingdom come and his will being done on earth as it is in heaven. That changes everything. 

Over the years, some have tried to expand this portion of the prayer beyond the bounds of our physical needs. They have quoted Jesus as saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4, ESV). From this, they have said that when we’re praying for our daily bread, we’re not really praying for our physical needs, but the true bread that comes from heaven—spiritual nourishment. Yet, I think this is misguided. Yes, it’s extremely important to know that we do not live by bread ALONE—it’s not enough to ultimately satisfy—however, Jesus never said that we didn’t need bread. We need bread AND the word of God. 

This is important because it’s a reminder that we are embodied creatures. God has given us a body. Like I mentioned throughout our series on Human Sexuality, God has given us BOTH a body and a soul and these are deeply connected and we must never hold one as being more important than the other. They need to be held in the proper tension. That means it is not spiritual to ignore the body or our physical life/existence. It’s not spiritual to ignore/neglect your body for “spiritual things.” Rather, we need to take care of our bodies so that we can do the “spiritual things” that God has given us to do in the world.

Here are two examples of what I’m talking about. The first one is an analogy from John Piper. He talks about one Fruit of the Spirit: patience. Since this is a fruit of the Spirit, it is produced in us by the Holy Spirit, right? However, we also know that when we’re functioning on low levels of sleep, we become very impatient, don’t we? So, is it a Fruit of the Spirit or a fruit of sleep? The answer is, YES. Why? Because God has created us Body and Soul and that’s important. If we’re not taking care of ourselves physically, then our spiritual lives also get all messed up. 

The second example comes from a friend of mine. He is fond of saying, “Many of our biggest problems can be solved by a snack and a nap.” Parents of toddlers figure out fairly quickly that many temper tantrums come about because the child is either tired or hungry. This doesn’t change as we get older. I live with a house full of female athletes, which means we are continually talking about what it means to be “Hangry.” If they don’t have the right food in them, they are kind of miserable to be around, sometimes. A snack and a nap solve many of our biggest problems. 

This is why Jesus tells us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” (Matthew 6:11, ESV) and the Heidelberg Catechism says it means, “Do take care of all our physical needs..." This portion of the prayer is all about our physical needs and praying that God would provide for those physical needs. It’s a reminder that Jesus didn’t think that these needs were unimportant or that it’s unnecessary for us to pray for these things. Instead, he told us to pray for these physical needs every day. So, while I mentioned that this shouldn’t be the ONLY portion of the prayer that we pray, we should also not feel bad/guilty about praying for these things. They’re very important. 

Yet, when we’re praying for our physical needs, we must not forget what we’re supposed to be praying for. We’re praying for bread and I think there’s a reason why Jesus uses this metaphor. Bread isn’t fancy. Bread doesn’t cause people to be jealous of us. Bread is a basic necessity of life. If we don’t have it, we long for it BUT when we do have it, we often don’t think it’s anything special. More than that, we often get sick and tired of bread. 

We see this happening with Israel in the desert. They were hungry and crying out for something to eat. God blesses them and sends them manna from heaven. They are so excited to be gathering bread in the desert and feasting on this miraculous food. But it doesn’t take long before we hear them saying, "But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” (Numbers 11:6, ESV). All we have is this stinking manna! We’re tired of this stuff. Why doesn’t God give us something better, something nicer, something fancier? They even get as crazy as saying something like, “Maybe we should put ourselves back into slavery in Egypt so that we can have some garlic and onions.” Bread is something we long for when we don’t have it, but take for granted when we have it—or even complain when we have it. 

We do the same thing on a regular basis. I guarantee you have said something like this in the last year: “AHHHHH. I’m so sick and tired of this stupid car, this stupid house, this stupid job, this stupid food, this stupid…” And underneath that complaint is this assumption, “Why isn’t God giving me better things? Why isn’t God providing for me better?” Here’s what’s crazy about that complaint. You’re complaining that God hasn’t provided for you well enough, by giving a long list of things God has provided for you—a car, a house, a job, food… God has provided for you, you just don’t like the way he has provided for you. 

Often the problem is that we don’t just want to be provided for. We want more than enough. We’re unsatisfied people, always looking for something more, something better. We don’t want bread, we want more than bread. The minimum we want is fancy bread, but really we want steak and potatoes and lobster and prime rib. And because we want all of those things and God keeps on giving us bread, and sometimes fancy bread, and sometimes more than bread, we complain because we want more than bread all the time. We think we deserve more than bread all the time. 

Yet, what do we deserve? This portion of the prayer says, “Give us this day our daily bread,” (Matthew 6:11, ESV). That word “give” is important. In one sense, you could read this as a command for God to give you what you need—kind of like an angry toddler demanding that their parents take care of them: “Give me! Give me! Give me!” Yet, that’s not exactly what’s going on. The word “give” is deeply connected with the word “gift” and I think it’s helpful for us to think of this portion of the prayer not as a spoiled rotten toddler, but by praying, “Gift us this day our daily bread.” It’s a way of reminding ourselves that we don’t deserve anything, which means that everything we have is a gift from God. Everything you have is an undeserved gift from your Heavenly Father—even your stupid car, house, or job. You didn’t deserve any of those things, but your Heavenly Father has given them to you as gifts. 

This is why the catechism adds, "so that we come to know that you are the only source of everything good”. When we finally recognize what is said in James—“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father…” (James 1:17, ESV)—we must respond in a few different ways. First, we must be thankful for the gifts God has given us. We do not pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” as ungrateful/unthankful people. Rather, we pray this as people who are already thankful for the ways God has provided for them and are asking God to continue to provide for them. Second, this puts us in a place of submission. We have to recognize that God is the only source of anything good and that if we’re going to receive anything, it has to come from Him. So, we are forced to come to God and ask for the things we need. We are forced to acknowledge that we need him. We not only need him in the times when we think we need him. We always need him, every day, hour, minute, second. 

That leads to our third response, which is humility. We must pray this with humility. That’s why the catechism says, “Neither our work and worry nor your gifts can do us any good without your blessing.” That’s such a powerful line. You can work, work, work, work and get absolutely nowhere unless God is blessing your work. You can worry, worry, worry, worry and it will get you nowhere unless God is providing blessing (in all reality, worrying doesn’t get you anywhere anyway). You can have everything you’ve ever wanted—you can have abundance upon abundance—and it will do nothing for you unless God is providing the blessing. Apart from the Heavenly Father you have nothing and can do nothing and will be satisfied by nothing. So, we have to pray this with humility, acknowledging that we can’t do this by ourselves and we need God to provide for us—and we need him to provide everything for us. 

I think this is particularly important for us to pray in our current time and culture. We have abundance upon abundance. Many people have said that we live in one of the wealthiest periods in all of history. And when this happens, we begin to trust in our abundance. John Calvin has this great line where he talks about humanity often becoming “intoxicated by a false sense of confidence in [our] abundance.” (325). We begin to think that we’re the ones who have provided for ourselves. We’re the ones who have worked hard to build everything we have. We’re the ones who have put food on the table. We’re the ones who have built this house, this business, this life. This is the epitome of pride. And in our pride, we’re putting ourselves in the position of God, acting like we have done all of this for ourselves. We’re ignoring the fact that apart from God’s blessing, none of our work or worry or gifts would have done us any good. Apart from God’s blessing we would have worked and toiled in vain. We would have gotten nowhere. Everything we have—no matter how hard we’ve worked for it—is an undeserved blessing/gift from our Heavenly Father. Not only do we need to be thankful for these blessings and gifts, but we also need to remember this as we pray for future blessings and gifts. They will only come from the hand of our Heavenly Father. So, we need to ask for them. 

There’s one more portion of this prayer that we need to discuss. It’s the portion that says, “…this day our daily…” (Matthew 6:11, ESV). We’re often not satisfied with this either. We don’t want enough for just today, we want enough for the week, month, year, life. We want things stored up. We want a nest egg. We want something we can rely on when things get tough. Do you see why this is a problem? Where are we putting our trust, when we’re putting our trust in our abundance? We’re no longer putting our trust in God, but we’re putting our trust in his gifts, ourselves, or other things He has created. That’s why the catechism also reminds us that we’re praying, “Help us to give up our trust in creatures and trust in you alone." Praying this prayer is an opportunity to lay your life in God’s hands each and every day, asking him to take care of your needs, admitting that nothing else will provide for these needs, and TRUSTING that your Heavenly Father is willing and able to provide for all of your needs.

Later in this same chapter, Jesus gives this rebuke: “O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:30–34, ESV). So, ask the Father to provide for you today and trust the Father to provide for you today. Don’t worry about tomorrow, don’t worry about all of the unknowns out there. Trust the Father today. Then trust the Father the next day, then the next, then the next. 

This has been one of the beautiful truths I’ve learned as I’ve followed Christ. He teaches us to trust him moment by moment because He teaches us that He will give us what we need when we need it. Sometimes he gives in abundance, other times he gives exactly what we need. Either way, he gives us what we need when we need it. I’m not just talking about providing food and money when things are tight—which happens quite often. I’m talking about some of our other physical needs—strength, patience, peace. I’ve had so many weeks throughout my life that I had no idea how I was going to get through that week. I recognized that the task before me was way beyond my abilities, yet I also realized that God had set the week up that way. So, what do you do in those moments? Do you turn and run away? Do you mumble and complain? No. You pray, “Give me today my daily bread”—give me what I need today to do what you’ve called me to do. THEN, you do the thing, trusting that God will give you what you need. Then, the next day you pray, “Give me TODAY my daily bread”—trusting that God will give you what you need. Then you do the thing. I’ll be honest, there are times when it’s much shorter than that. While I was at Synod in June, I was pushed WAY beyond my limits and capabilities, and I found myself saying, “Give me this hour, minute, second, my daily bread.” Then, I would do the thing, trusting God to give me what I needed—it maybe wasn’t what I wanted, but it was always what I needed. 

Now, we don’t always like this, but it’s actually a really good thing. I came across a quote this week that helped me understand the beauty and power of this. A.B. Simpson said, “If God just gave us all His glorious gifts of grace in one lump sum, we would be in danger of enjoying the gift and forgetting all about God.” Now, I’ve already talked about this a little bit, but this quote made me think of things a little differently. Most of our anxieties come because we want the lump sum—we want the big bank account so that we know the money is always there, we want surplus health and strength. Yet, when we begin to trust in these things, guess what also happens, our relationship with God suffers. Because we have stopped trusting God, we stop coming to Him in prayer. We stop seeking him. As a result, our relationship with God suffers. However, when we learn to live every moment of every day trusting in our God, relying on Him for everything, we are forced to be in constant relationship with Him. We are continually coming to him for more strength, more peace, more patience, more provision. We’re in constant conversation with him, constantly building our relationship with him. The lump sum doesn’t do that. It kills the relationship. 

This is the point of this entire portion of our prayer. It answers the question of where we truly find our satisfaction. We will never be satisfied by our stuff, or by our job, or by our life. The only way we will ever be fully and completely satisfied in this life is to truly and honestly pray, “Give us today our daily bread”—to constantly be laying our lives in His hands. Daily giving him our requests. Daily trusting God to provide everything we need. Daily giving thanks for everything he has given. That’s the only way we will be truly satisfied in this life. We must live every moment of every day by faith and trust in our Heavenly Father.