3. Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
Luke 11:3
If God told you to do something and you didn’t do it, would it matter? Would everything continue on as if He had never told you? Would it make a difference?
When we were growing up, prayer was often described to us as just talking to God. And, of course, listening to Him. Many times our prayers are all one-sided. We do all the talking, and if God wanted to say something back to us, He wouldn’t be able to get a word in edgewise. We finish and say “Amen” and then we go on our way.
But here we are finding that Jesus is teaching us how to pray. Prayer is not just something that we can do spontaneously, though at times we certainly can, but it is and cannot be just that. Jesus is teaching us that there are some things that we need to pray for specifically everyday. One of these things is our daily bread.
Did you pray for your daily bread today? And what if you didn’t? Will you still get it? And if you didn’t get it, would that have been God’s will for your life?
When you pray, what do you pray for? I think most of us pray for needs, our needs, our kids’ needs, our neighbor’s needs, the needs of the world. The difference here is that He is telling us to pray for something before it actually becomes a need. He is telling us to pray for something that most of us probably don’t even think about.
But let’s first ask the question: what is our daily bread? We use the expression to refer to our daily needs, but we get that idea from this passage. But what did it mean back when Jesus first used it, and where did the expression come from?
Let’s look first at some of the things that the Bible talks about when it refers to bread. First, there is, of course, literal food, and, by extension, clothing. In the same context where Jesus talked about prayer and gave this Lord’s Prayer,[2] He talks about how God takes care of birds and wild flowers and how much more He will take care of us.
We shouldn’t worry about food and clothing, because God cares about us more than the birds of the air, which don’t even sow, or reap, or gather into storehouses. He feeds them, and He will take care of us as well.
In another context, Jesus calls Himself “the Bread of life.” The person who comes to Him shall never hunger and the one who believes in Him shall by no means ever thirst,[3] and then again shortly after: the living Bread come down from heaven, which we must eat to gain eternal life.[4] What is significant in both passages is the use of the present participles. It is quite common to speak of faith in Jesus as an event that has happened in the past. We say that we have believed in Christ, and therefore we are now saved. But the emphasis here is on the present state of the person who is doing the believing. As this person is believing in Jesus, they are finding that they are not hungering or thirsting. This is a state of continual coming and receiving from Jesus.
I have heard Christians speak of dry seasons, or times when God seems so far away from them. That seems contrary to the tone of these passages. If we are in a “dry” spell, it would seem that we are hungering and thirsting. Jesus says that would never happen to those who are continually coming and believing and feeding on Him, the living Bread from heaven.
Jesus tells us that everyday we are to ask God for our daily bread. This includes then the comfort and presence of Jesus in our lives. Everyday, in the morning, we come and receive our daily bread of Jesus in our lives.
There is something else here that bears comment. It is common to hear in churches that we cannot tell God what to do, that some Christians act as if God had to answer their prayers a certain way and in a certain time frame. We can only ask of God, not demand, always sensitive to His will, which may or may not grant whatever it is that we ask.
There is one slight problem with this. Note the petition that Jesus tells us to pray here: Give us this day our daily bread. If this is a request, how does it differ from a command? The verb form is called a present active imperative. And this is the form of a command. Certainly we don’t want to say that we are commanding God. However, if God, or Jesus, tells us to pray for a certain thing, first of all, that means that that thing is God’s will for us to have in our lives. So it means that He intends to grant us that petition. Asking generally implies the possibility that the request will not be granted. But this petition will be granted. We are told to pray for it, so it must be God’s will, and so He will do it. So the petition is not “please may I,” “please would you,” “if you please,” or even, “if it be Your will,” but “give us this day.” Saying “thank you” goes without saying.
This is a prayer with immediate results, as far as prayer goes. Some prayers take years to see the fruits, but here God is telling us that help is here today for us.
There is another meaning to the idea of bread. In the book of Sirach,[5] wisdom is described as feeding a person with “the bread of understanding[6]” and “the water of wisdom.”[7] Elsewhere in the New Testament, wisdom is spoken of as something that we are encouraged to ask for if we need it,[8] and we should be assured that God will give it to us, but we do need to ask in faith, which in that context means, believing that He will give it to us when we need it.
So when Jesus said we should ask God everyday for our daily bread, was He thinking of wisdom as well? I would have to say yes. When James spoke of asking for wisdom, it is clear that he is not thinking of wisdom as something that we ask for early in life, God grants it, and we are set. But it is wisdom that we need as we encounter things in life that we don’t understand or don’t know the best course of action in a situation. So too, Jesus would see wisdom as something that we constantly seek and receive from God.
My wife was just talking to me yesterday about Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, yet he still disobeyed God on some matters that he should have known about. How can this be? One explanation can be that he saw wisdom as something that he had achieved rather than as something to be daily appropriated from God, like manna from heaven, our daily bread.
There is another time in the Gospels that Jesus spoke of bread referring to something other than literal bread.[9] A woman had a daughter who was demon possessed.[10] She came to Jesus seeking deliverance for her, and Jesus spoke of that deliverance as bread belonging to the people of God. A case could be made that this could apply to all physical healing.[11] I won’t press the case here, because that is too big of a subject, but I would certainly include health as one of the things included under daily bread. Too many of us see a few times in the Bible where someone was sick or had a “thorn in the flesh” and then overlook all the healing that Jesus and the Apostles did, and say that those were the exception rather than the rule of how God wants to work. But that’s another and very large subject.[12] But Jesus called the deliverance of this woman’s daughter “the bread of the children.”[13]
There is one other time in the Bible where bread is used in a metaphorical way that I think Jesus also had in mind when He spoke of our daily bread. There is an expression: “Cast your bread upon the waters.”[14] Commentators have suggested different ways to interpret this, but I think that most have now reached the conclusion that the best way to understand the expression is that it is speaking of generosity. Casting bread on the waters is a dispensing of what one has to others or in good causes without having as a motive any immediate, tangible return. The verse continues: “for you will find it in many days.”
So how would this apply to the Lord’s Prayer? If we are to cast our bread upon the waters and then ask God everyday for our daily bread, it would seem to be a general catch-all expression for all that you have that you might give to others, including but not limited to material possessions. It could refer to time, talent, and energy. I think we can understand it as general well-being in every way: emotionally, socially, and financially.
If the fruit of the Spirit is love; joy, and peace;[15] and the joy of the Lord is our strength;[16] and God cares for us like a father his own children;[17] and He gives what we ask Him for in the same way we would give to our own children;[18] then when Jesus tells us how to pray and says that we should ask God everyday for our daily bread, and this is essentially all we are asking as something that God actually “gives” to us, then I would say that everything that contributes to our entire well-being is included in our daily bread.
A few questions to ask at this point are: when we ask for our daily bread, 1) do we need to be aware of all these implications when we ask, or 2) do we need to be more specific when we ask in order to cover all these other things? Answer: Jesus is teaching us to pray, so, yes, first of all, if we are not aware of all that we are asking for, we will not be expecting to receive more that what we are thinking we are asking for. Will that make a difference? I think so. Like James said, when we ask for wisdom, we must ask in faith, nothing doubting, otherwise we will not receive it.[19] So, if we are not expecting to receive anything more than what we are thinking we are asking for, will we receive the rest? I would say, don’t count on it.
But when Jesus spoke about daily bread, there is no doubt in my mind that He was thinking of an experience in the life of the ancient Israelites, when they were traveling from Egypt to their new home in Canaan, modern day Israel.[20] They numbered over a million, and they were traveling through a wilderness. And God miraculously provided food for them for 40 years. Everyday, before the sun got hot, there would be a flake-like substance on the ground, like dew. They called it ‘bread from heaven,” or manna.
The Israelites were to go out everyday before the sun got hot and gather what they would need for the day. If they tried to save some for the next day, it would rot. It was only good for the one day - except when the Sabbath came, their day of rest. They were to gather double on the day before, and what was left over would keep for the next day, so they would not have to go out and gather on their day of rest.
The reason for all this was that God wanted to test the people, whether or not they would walk in His law[21] And when the people had trouble following these instructions, some of them went out on the Sabbath looking for manna, and God asked Moses: “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?”[22]
Now if the people overslept in the morning and went out later in the day to gather it, it would be gone. Everyday, early in the day, they had to go our and gather their daily bread. God wanted them to have it, but they had to go out and get it. Everyday. Early in the day. Before the sun got hot. And if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have any.
I think it is interesting to note that those who gathered little did not run out, and those who gathered much did not have any left over. But, again, those who didn’t gather any didn’t have any, and it wasn’t because God didn’t want them to have any..
So when Jesus tells us that we should pray: “Give us this day our daily bread,” we have some idea what this looks like. Everyday, before the sun gets hot, we should go to God and ask for what we need for the day.
Over the years I have come to the point where I do this as early in the morning as I can. I have learned that I am dependent on God for everything and that everything that we have is fragile and temporary. I have learned also to become very specific in my prayers.
Not only do I pray specifically for my family members, I pray for our house and everything in it, on it, and about it. I pray for our cars and everything we own. Why? When I first started doing this, when things went wrong, I often found that I had not specifically prayed for that particular thing, so I began including these things as well.
I know this can sound strange, legalistic to some, burdensome to others. I am just telling you my experience here. The fact still remains that Jesus tells us that we are supposed to pray everyday for our daily bread. And as my prayer has grown longer and longer, I am becoming more and more aware not only of my utter dependence on God but also of my part in seeing God’s will done on earth. If my prayers have this much difference on the things that I can see everyday, I can take great encouragement that my prayers can make a great difference in so many other matters in which I don’t have any daily feedback on the progress or outcome.
Does all this mean that nothing goes wrong anymore? Not exactly. But I will say emphatically that it has made a difference like night and day.
No, this is not the answer to all of your problems. On the one hand, I will say that there has been such a noticeable difference that I won’t miss starting a day covering all that I have and care about with specific prayer for our daily bread.
But life is bigger than you and I, and there are still things that we won’t understand. In 1992 I was out of work for much of the time. I had lost a job that I had had for 15 years due to downsizing and the rest of the year I was only able to find temporary and part-time jobs. That year our refrigerator went out, our television, our dishwasher, our oven, our disposal unit, and there were a few other major unexpected expenses that I don’t remember right now as well. We didn’t have a lot of disposable income, but I made it a point to upgrade wherever I could. A larger refrigerator, a larger television.
When you have built a foundation where you see God providing for you, when things do get rough, you don’t start blaming God or wondering where He went. You see it as a time to upgrade, to trade in your old for something better. Even maybe at a time when you might not think you can afford it.
The point is, when you start praying for things everyday, you will find that fewer things will need repair, fewer people will get sick, fewer things will go wrong. But like Job never found out, there are factors working to influence our lives that we will never know about.
I should say also that sometimes when you start on a new program like this, you may find a rash of things going wrong right at the start. Don’t panic. That’s like the first time you clean out your cellar. You find all kinds of things in there that may need to be gotten rid of, but as you go down there more often, the place is cleaner and cleaner.
But the next question is: so what if you didn’t pray for your daily needs today? What if you never do? Does it make a difference?
Remember, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. And He does. He agrees that prayer is something that needs to be taught. And what’s the point of teaching something if it doesn’t make any difference whether you learn it or not? Whether you do it or not? Does it make a difference if you don’t pray for your daily bread? Unquestionably, yes.
Now many of us who will read this live in a prosperous nation. We will not starve if it doesn’t rain for a month. We have enough material things that, apart from some major tragedy, we don’t worry much about our daily needs. The question is: do you want to wait until such time that that may happen, or will you do what Jesus says and come to God every morning asking for your daily provisions? Do we need to wait until our world falls in before we learn that our lives are not our own, that most of life is out of our control, that we are indeed dependent on God for everything we have?
So, for most of us, if we don’t pray for this, we may not see much of a difference. At least right away. I certainly did. But let’s say we don’t pray for it. Today, or any day. Does it matter? If Jesus tells you to pray for something, whatever it is, and you don’t, will it make a difference? Will you still get what you were supposed to ask for? And if you didn’t, would that have been God’s will for your life? After all, He did tell you to pray for these things in the first place.
Living in modern Western civilization, we can prosper materially and physically without even seeing any relation to God’s active provision for our lives. One problem then is that we judge our blessing from God on the basis of things that we can see and touch and not even notice the state or progress of our spiritual, emotional, and mental lives. So, no, whether or not God blesses us may not be as extreme as the situation of the Israelites where, if they did not physically gather their manna for that day, they did not have any. Our refrigerators will still have the food that we left in there last night.
So many of us may not notice any immediate changes from one day to the next or some of us who have not prayed this may not even see it as necessary. But then, I am not suggesting that you try this. I am just saying that any person who believes in prayer needs to be aware that prayer is something that you need to be taught how to do. And Jesus, the Person who is the Teacher, says that everyday you need to pray for your daily bread.
When God created the world, I suppose theoretically He could have created it far different than He did. Theoretically, He could have created a world that could have procreated without sex, a world without families, without genders, without germs. A world where knowledge was innate, where you did not have to learn a skill, where you did not have to eat to live, yet alone eat right. Where you could eat all the junk food you wanted.
Why am I saying this? God created the physical as a reflection of the spiritual. We have children; God has children. We have spouses; the Church is the Bride of Christ. We learn spiritual truths often by observing physical truths. This is one reason that, when Jesus taught, He used parables (“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a sower, like a pearl of great price, like a merchant, . . . ). And one thing we learn from life is that all substantial growth takes time, that people learn and develop as they build piece upon piece, brick upon brick. As they practice and practice, they gain skills.
So, it is as we pray daily for our daily bread that we grow and develop into the spiritual people that God intends for us to be. It is the daily prayer for our daily bread that builds up our lives that we can share them with others and become the all-around healthy prosperous people that God wants us to be.
So one last question here: if you didn’t pray for your daily bread today, and you didn’t receive it, would that be God’s will for your life? If Jesus told you to pray for it, that must mean that God wants you to do it. And if He wants you to do it, it must be His will. And why would He want you to pray for something, if it didn’t matter whether you prayed for it or not? So it must matter. So if you don’t pray for it, and you don’t receive it, that must not be God’s will for you.
There are entire books written on things like the sovereignty of God, and we are always told that nothing can come to us except it be approved by our loving, heavenly Father. I think that often we confuse the issues here. First, God has allowed every rotten thing that has ever happened in the world: all the wars, all the diseases, all the famines and natural disasters. So the fact that something happens means that God allowed it, but I would be very hesitant to conclude that it must have been God’s will. At least not in the way we like to use the expression. We use the phrase to say that something is what God wants to happen for us and to us. If we don’t do what God tells us to do and consequently something either happens or doesn’t happen because of that, can we say that this was God’s will?
This question relates closely to what we will look at in the next chapter, so we will look at it there a little more.
But regardless. Everyday. Before the sun gets hot. Go to God for your daily bread. I used to do it while I was still in bed. Now that I am starting work at six in the morning, I do it in the car on the way to work. But I do it everyday. As early as I possibly can. First things first.
[1] Give us this day our daily bread.
[2] This prayer is found twice in the Gospels. This reference is to Matthew 6.
[3] John 6:30-35 So they said to Him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, —He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world." They said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. John 6:35 eiåpen au)toiÍj o( ¹Ihsou=j, ¹Egw¯ ei¹mi o( aÃrtoj th=j zwh=j: o( e)rxo/menoj pro\j e)me\ ou) mh\ peina/sv, kaiì o( pisteu/wn ei¹j e)me\ ou) mh\ diyh/sei pw¯pote.
[4] John 6:58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever. ouÂto/j e)stin o( aÃrtoj o( e)c ou)ranou= kataba/j, ou) kaqwÜj eÃfagon oi¸ pate/rej kaiì a)pe/qanon: o( trw¯gwn tou=ton to\n aÃrton zh/sei ei¹j to\n ai¹w½na.
trw¯gw (tro’ – go) strictly crunch; literally, of animals gnaw, nibble; of human beings eat, take food, partake of (a meal) (MT 24.38); idiomatically trw¯gein tino/j ton aÃrton literally eat someone's bread, i.e. be a close companion (JN 13.18); figuratively and as a religious technical term, of deriving benefit from Christ's atoning death benefit from, partake of (JN 6.54-58)
[5] It’s a debatable question, and one that I will not try to answer here, what view Jesus held of the book of Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus, which is a part of the Roman Catholic Bible, but not considered authoritative or inspired by Protestants. If you look at the Greek New Testament, however, I counted 121 times where the book of Sirach is alluded to, forty-two of which are in the Gospels. In Mark 10:19, where Jesus is answering the question of a man who asked Him what He should do to inherit eternal life (Dida/skale a)gaqe/, ti¿ poih/sw iàna zwh\n ai¹w¯nion klhronomh/sw;)) Jesus quotes some of the Ten Commandments, but He adds the command: Do not defraud. Is that from Sirach 4:1, or from Exodus 21:10 LXX and Malachi 3:5? Sirach seems the more likely source.
[6] understanding su/nesij (sun’–e–sis) a coming together, union, quick comprehension, mother-wit, intelligence, sagacity
[7] Sirach 15:3
[8] James 1:5-8 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways,. Ei¹ de/ tij u(mw½n lei¿petai sofi¿aj, ai¹tei¿tw para\ tou= dido/ntoj qeou= pa=sin a(plw½j kaiì mh\ o)neidi¿zontoj kaiì doqh/setai au)t%½. ai¹tei¿tw de\ e)n pi¿stei mhde\n diakrino/menoj: o( ga\r diakrino/menoj eÃoiken klu/dwni qala/sshj a)nemizome/n% kaiì r(ipizome/n%. mh\ ga\r oi¹e/sqw o( aÃnqrwpoj e)keiÍnoj oÀti lh/myetai¿ ti para\ tou= kuri¿ou, a)nh\r di¿yuxoj, a)kata/statoj e)n pa/saij taiÍj o(doiÍj au)tou=.
[9] Matthew 15:21-28, esp. v. 26
[10] daimoni¿zomai (day-mon-id’-zo-mai) of demon possession or oppression be possessed by, be tormented or vexed by, be demonized (MT 4.24)
[11] Consider such passages as Luke 13:10-17, Acts 10:38
[12] I will refer the reader to my book, The Importance of Healing, by PublishAmerica, 2006.
[13] Matthew 15:26
[15] Galatians 5:22
[16] Nehemiah 8:10
[17] Psalm 103:13
[18] Matthew 7:7-10
[19] James 1:5-8
[20] Exodus 16
[22] Exodus 16:27f
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