Day Four

Matthew 6:11

Give us this day our daily bread.

Please and thank you. These are the magic words that all children are taught to say and that some adults maybe need to remember. We consider it to be basic good manners to say please whenever you ask for something and to say thank you whenever you get it. Without the word “please” a simple request can become an abrupt command. You can probably imagine the different tones of voice used for “please give” and “give.” Without a polite “thank you” when we receive something we sound extremely ungrateful.

Considering that this is how we speak to other people, it might seem strange then that there is no please and no thank you in this line of the Lord’s Prayer. Maybe it sounds a bit presumptuous to our ears, but we need to remember that we are praying to our heavenly Father, not to a stranger, therefore we come with confidence but not with irreverence. We can pray with boldness because prayer that comes from a humble heart is not presumptuous but is pleasing and acceptable to God.

We are probably already very good at thanking God for our food, but do we remember to ask Him for our food? In the not-too-distant past everyone was dependent on local farmers having a good harvest every year. Everyone’s circumstances are different, however by and large most people today have more wealth than previous generations and have access to supermarkets which make them much less dependent on local rain, sunshine, and harvest. Perhaps we just assume that we will always have the food we need, and therefore take it for granted instead of praying for it. It is worth noticing again the use of the plural pronouns “us” and “our” because there are many people who do not have the same access to the everyday essentials as we do, and we ought to be praying for them.

This line of the Lord’s Prayer serves to remind us that we are not independent. We rely upon God not just for our daily bread but for all our physical and spiritual needs. We depend upon God every minute of every day. Would it be better to pray “give us this day our lifetime bread?” That might sound convenient, but it would not take long for us to forget who gave us that bread and to then wander off into hopeless independence. During their years in the wilderness God provided for the Children of Israel by giving them manna, however this bread from heaven had to be gathered each morning. Some people thought they knew better but soon discovered that this really was daily bread because it would rot overnight. The purpose of this was that they should never forget how they depended upon God, yet the recurring problem was that despite everything that God had done for them, the Children of Israel kept on forgetting God.

Some people take the same approach to their spiritual nourishment as the Children of Israel took towards this manna. They go to church on a Sunday morning and think that this is sufficient to fuel them for the whole week ahead. Prayer, Bible reading, and fellowship with other Christians are neglected as they think they are able to go it on their own and do not need daily refreshment from God. Just as the manna began to rot so too any Christians who try to live like this will find themselves withering and rotting long before the next Sunday service comes around.

Indeed, Jesus is the bread of life and whoever comes to Him shall not hunger (John 6:35). That does not mean we just come to Jesus as a one and done to get what we need then go our own way giving no more thought to Him. That is a totally wrong understanding of Jesus’ words and of the Christian faith. Jesus is the bread of life and therefore we must come to Him daily, walk with Him, stay close to Him so that we will not hunger for the things of this world but find our full satisfaction and all we need in this life in Him.