DAILY BREAD

Give us this day our daily bread.
(Matthew 6: 11 – NAS)


It’s so simple and straightforward. What more needs to be said?

A lot, actually.

Jesus will have more to say later about how anxious we get about our basic needs, but here He pares it down to the most immediate element.

We need to eat.

And by teaching us to pray for this, Jesus makes it clear that God knows this is necessary to us. Our bodies need sustanence in order to function.

But He also is pointing out that we don’t need a lot to be functional. “Our daily bread.” The basics of what we need to get by. Fuel for energy.

He doesn’t tell us to ask for feasts, for treats, for favorite foods. He tells us to ask for the staples of life, our daily bread.

That’s not to say that He thinks there is anything wrong with feasts or treats. But just that it isn’t what we should be focusing on or spending our precious time asking for.

And it’s our daily bread. Not tomorrow’s bread. Not next week’s bread. Today’s.

I once wrote about this and spent time discussing the length of time required to prepare bread for a day. That usually a household would spend a portion of the day baking and preparing the bread needed for the next day. I observed that for us, that meant that part of today’s job was preparing the basics for the next day.

I’m not going to say I was wrong about that, because often, that is indeed part of what our day ought to be concerned about.

But here and now, I think I will cut even closer to the bone. Jesus says we are to ask for what we need to eat today. And I think He wants us to believe completely that God always responds to this particular part of the prayer.

We tend to hold back when things get tough for us. We keep looking forward to tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. If we are short on money, and don’t know where the next dollar will come from, we start thinking “Well, I don’t need to buy that sandwich today. I had some meat yesterday, and if I don’t think about it, I can get through the day. I’ll drink a lot of water, that’s it. Besides, I need to lose some weight.” So, we don’t eat, because we don’t know if we’ll have money for when we get really, really hungry tomorrow.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

I’ve been as anxious about tomorrow as anyone. I’ve put off eating today because I didn’t know if I’d be able to get anything tomorrow, and if I could just get through today, that’s one more day along, and I’d be able to get bread tomorrow. I’ve been acting as if my prayer was “Get me through today, Lord, so I can get bread tomorrow.”

The Lord wants us to pay attention to the here and now. We have no guarantee about “tomorrow.” The world could break apart in the next hour. There is only this moment, and God is in this moment with us.

We need to eat.

“Give me this day the daily bread I need.”

Not what I want, what I need. What I want would be a nice slab of fresh prime rib beef, with horseradish, mashed potatoes with a touch of garlic served with butter, fresh green peas still firm, a salad of greens and other garnishes with juicy sliced tomatoes with a Thousand Island dressing. That’s what I want. What I need is some protein and energy, maybe in the form of scrambled eggs on toast, maybe some liquid yoghurt.

Daily bread.

We’re not being presumptuous to ask for basic food needs. We are not being frivolous with money when we buy the sandwich we need right now instead of paying some bill.

God knows what we need. He knows our prayers before we lift them up. What He loves is that we come to Him in our need. But He wants us to stay focused on the immediate. It’s not “Stock my cupboard with all of this week’s meals.” It’s not “Make sure there is always something in the cupboard, just in case.” It is “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Here. Now. What we need.

I admit it. I find it hard some times to stay in that middle ground. I either want my kitchen so stocked up that I have a multitude of choices about what to eat, or I start holding onto the pennies so tightly I start thinking “I only have X amount of dollars. If I don’t eat today, I can go buy foodstuff tomorrow and I’ll be one day further along.” On that second option ... just how foolish can I be? If I don’t eat today when I am hungry, I spend the day hungry and not as well focused on the work that is immediately in front of me. I won’t be any better tomorrow. On top of that, having not eaten today, when I go to the store tomorrow, I will be shopping hungry, and thus inclined to spend more on edibles that are less than necessary.

We need to trust the Lord when we pray this. And act as if we really believe that He will provide for our daily needs, no matter what.

It’s easy enough to do when we are prospering in even very modest ways. We give thanks over our food and roll onward. The challenge is when supplies are short, for whatever reason.

“Give me this day my daily bread.”

And the Lord provides.