Our Daily Bread
Matthew 6:11
“Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)
Remember that in his Gospel, Matthew is presenting Jesus as the Messiah-King. In the Sermon on the Mount our Lord, the King, is teaching His disciples characteristics and principles of the kingdom of heaven. In Matthew 6:1-18 Jesus teaches about true piety, illustrated by three righteous actions: giving, praying, and fasting. We have seen that our motives for doing these things are all important. God knows our hearts. Our Father sees in secret. He rewards the unpretentious and unselfish. He knows what we need before we ask.
So, Jesus teaches us to pray by giving us a model, a template for prayer. Prayer begins with a relationship with our Heavenly Father who is both near to us and transcendent over us. Because He is our Father, He cares for us and has compassion on us. Because He is in heaven, He has all authority and power to hear and answer our prayers. Prayer is all about God. It begins with Him, ends with Him, and concerns His name, His kingdom, and His will before it is concerned with our needs.
Jesus teaches us to begin with God and His glory, and then in the light of that to come to ourselves and our needs. What are our needs? We need to be sustained –– fed and clothed. We need to be forgiven because our sins are many. Then we need to be strengthened against the temptations that lurk within us and delivered from the evil that is all around us.
As we turn from God’s name, His Kingdom, and His will to man’s need, we don’t leave God’s glory behind. We pray recognizing that if our needs are to be met, God must be the provider. We are not trying to manipulate God—buttering Him up in the first three requests so that we can now ask Him for what we want. This prayer does not become selfish when we begin to ask for ourselves. This prayer is not at all man-centered or self-indulgent.
In a sense, even though we’re turning to man in his needs from God and His glory, God is still the focus because this is not just a petition, it is an affirmation. What we’re really saying is, “You must provide what we need for physical life; You must pardon our sins; You must protect us from evil.” There is a sense of humility here. There’s an attitude of total dependence but there is nothing demanding about it.
So today, we come to the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). In this prayer for “daily bread,” what do we mean by “bread”? Do we mean actual literal bread and only that?
Bread was a staple in the diet of the Jews and most other ancient cultures. It had been so since the beginning. The first place we find bread in the Bible is after Adam and Eve had sinned in the garden. In cursing the ground because of Adam’s sin, God said (Gen 3:19), “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread; Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” Bread was a category for all that people would eat to sustain themselves.
Also, bread was a powerful symbol of God’s provision for His people in the Old Testament. God cared for the Israelites in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt. Life in the wilderness was hard, and soon the people began to complain that it would be better to be back in Egypt, where they had wonderful food to eat. In response to these complaints, God promised (Ex. 16:4), “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.” The next morning (Exo. 16:14-15), “… when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.” The phrase “what is it?” in Hebrew sounds like “manna.” So that’s what they called it (Exo. 16:31), “And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” When God miraculously fed His people from heaven, he did so by giving them bread.
And notice that it was “daily bread.” The people were to go out and gather it every day (Exo. 16:4). Moses instructed them (Exo. 16:19), “Let no one leave any of it till morning.” If they tried to keep it overnight for tomorrow (Exo. 16:20), “it bred worms and stank.” The only exception to this was that manna would not be found in the fields on the Sabbath day (Exo. 16:25-26). They were to gather enough for two days on the sixth day, and it would not spoil overnight for the Sabbath day (Exo. 16:22-24).
So “daily bread” represents what God provides to sustain our physical life. Jesus teaches us to pray for this. “Give us this day our daily bread.” This means that there is nothing unspiritual about praying for food, or clothes, or whatever else we may need in order to live our lives here in this world. Our bodies matter to God. So we can pray about the body and its needs.
When you’re saying, “Give us this day our daily bread,” you’re really saying, “God, we confess that if we live it is because You provide what we need, You sustain us.” We are praying for God to meet our basic daily needs. Martin Luther said, “everything necessary for the preservation of this life is bread, including food, a healthy body, good weather, house, home, wife, children, good government, and peace.”[1]
Notice also that the manna was a test to prove Israel’s obedience to God’s law (Exo. 16:4) even though some of them failed the test (Exo. 16:27-28). It was a test of faith. Would they believe God and trust in Him?
How is praying for “our daily bread” a test of faith? Are we trusting in God to provide our daily necessities? Remember, prayer is not us getting God to do our will, but us submitting to His will. Prayer is not about changing God but changing us. With that in mind, here are,
Four things this prayer will do in us:
1. Encourage Us to Depend on God
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
The imperative, “Give us,” is directed to God. So, the source of our daily bread is implied. God is the source of everything. He is the creator and sustainer of all things, the God who is forming His eternal kingdom, the God who is infinitely holy and perfect, the God who knows everything that can be known, the God to whom the nations of the earth are as dust. Thus, He is able to meet every single need of all of His beloved children. Jesus says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matt. 10:29-31; cf. Luke 12:6-7). You can cast all your care on Him, Peter says, for He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).
When we ask Our Father to “Give us this day our daily bread,” it suggests our absolute dependence on God for all our material needs. God made us with needs so that we would have to look to Him to supply them. The Bible teaches that all things come from God.
In the classic movie, Shenandoah, Jimmy Stewart plays the part of the father, Charlie Anderson. He prays at breakfast, “Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we’re about to eat, amen.”[2]
Charlie Anderson was right in saying that he had worked hard to provide for his family, but the scriptures remind us that we depend on God at every stage of the process by which our food comes to us. We depend on God when our food is in the field, in the barn, on the plate, and in our stomach.[3]
When the grain is in the field it is at risk of being destroyed by wind, rain, drought, or disease. God can take it back before it ever gets to us. When Israel forgot that it was God who gave them all their provisions, God warned Israel through the prophet Hosea, “Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time And My new wine in its season, And will take back My wool and My linen …” (Hos. 2:9).
When the grain is in the barn it can easily be destroyed by fire. One blaze and the whole harvest is gone. Again Hosea sounds the alarm, “The threshing floor and the winepress Shall not feed them, And the new wine shall fail in her.” (Hos. 9:2).
Even when our food is on the plate, we need God. What use is food on your plate if you do not have an appetite to eat it? The psalmist wrote about fools who did not give thanks to God, “Their soul abhorred all manner of food, And they drew near to the gates of death.” (Psa. 107:18).
Even when the food is in your stomach, it will be of no use to you if it makes you sick. From the growing of our food to the nourishing of our bodies, we depend on God to supply all of our needs.
Next time you sit down to eat a meal, just look around the table. Every spec of food and all that goes into it being yours is as much a gift from God as the manna in the wilderness. This prayer is the acknowledgment of our hearts that all that we have that sustains our physical life comes from God.
Psalm 104 reminds us that God’s providence sustains all living creatures, animals and mankind alike:
27 These all wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season.
28 What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
29 You hide Your face, they are troubled;
You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. (Psalm 104:27-29).
If for one moment God closes His hand or for one instant doesn’t provide, we’re all in trouble. The problem with our understanding of this is that most of us have never had one single day in our whole life without food. The major concern for most Americans is not whether we are going to eat today but what we are going to eat and how not to eat too much.
So we desperately need the lesson of this prayer. This petition of the Lord’s Prayer, then, teaches us to come to God in a spirit of humble dependence, asking Him to provide what we need and to sustain us from day to day. We are not given the license to ask for great riches. It is a prayer for bread, not triple chocolate praline cheesecake. The invitation to pray “give us this day our daily bread,” is not carte blanche to pray for everything we see in TV ads or on Amazon. Jesus didn’t teach us to pray, “Give us this day our daily steak and lobster.” He says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The attitude of the prayer isn’t, “Give me all I want,” but “give us what we need.”
This prayer will encourage our dependence on God. Second, this prayer will,
2. Examine the Discipline of Our Lives.
Jesus teaches us to pray for God to give us “this day” our “daily” bread. God wants us to have a daily discipline in our lives of looking to Him in faith and trust. God has not promised us anything for tomorrow. But He instructed us to ask Him to meet our daily needs.
The writer of Proverbs 30 made this request,
7 Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): 8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches–Feed me with the food allotted to me; 9 Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the LORD?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God. (Pro. 30:7-9)
It reminds me of what Paul wrote to Timothy, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6). And he goes on to write, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” (1 Tim 6:7).
The truth is that God often blesses most of us with far more than we need. God has created everything for you to eat and enjoy. Our bodies do matter and, for children of God, eating should be a spiritual act. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul writes, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” How do you eat to the glory of God? By recognizing the source of everything you eat. By giving thanks (Rom. 14:6), “… He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.”
Praying for daily bread forces us to be disciplined about examining what the Lord has provided—and how He would have us use it for His glory.
This prayer will encourage our dependence on God, examine the discipline of our lives, and third, it will,
3. Eliminate the Disease of Worry.
Praying for daily bread removes worry. Jesus did not say to pray for next week’s bread or next month’s bread. He said to pray for today’s bread. When we focus on today, we will not worry about tomorrow. Jesus taught later in this chapter, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” And again, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matt. 6:25, 34).
To trust Him daily means I must pray daily. As believers, we need daily renewal of God’s grace. We often get stressed out with anxiety because we try to face the problems of tomorrow today. Yesterday’s strength is absolutely useless to fight today’s battles. We need a fresh touch of God in our lives every day. God never gives us a reservoir of grace in our lives but expects us to turn to Him every day for the grace sufficient to meet the challenges of that day. D. L. Moody once said, “A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months, or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week. We must draw upon God’s boundless store of grace from day to day as we need it.”
It’s not wrong to prayerfully plan for tomorrow or to make provision for tomorrow, but it is wrong to worry about tomorrow. God has ordained that life moves at the pace of one day at a time. God wants us to trust Him for today.
In teaching us to pray for daily supply, the Lord is not encouraging laziness or irresponsibility. We can’t have the attitude, “I’m going to quit my job and go into deep prayer and ask God to provide everything.” That goes against other principles of scripture. You earn your bread by the sweat of your brow (Gen. 3:19). If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat (2 Thess. 3:10). “The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.” (Pro. 13:4). God has called us to work and seek the kingdom and God has promised to graciously provide.
Do you have a need in your life? The Lord Jesus teaches you to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” He is saying “I will meet your needs.”
This prayer will encourage our dependence, examine our discipline, eliminate the disease of worry, and it will,
4. Enlarge Our Duty to Pray.
Notice that Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” not “Give me this day my daily bread.” This whole prayer is concerned not just about my own needs—but also the needs of others. This prayer is an antidote to pride, materialism, and selfishness. We are to pray, “Lord as You meet my needs, also meet their needs.”
This is where we intercede for the practical needs of others. This is where we pray for a hungry world. This is where we ask God to bring to our minds the needs of others we can help. And if God has given you what you need for today, this prayer may prompt you to be the means by which God provides for someone else.
Finally, let me just point out that in the Bible, bread can also represent provision for our spiritual life. Jesus likened the life-sustaining word of God to bread when Satan tempted Him to make stones into bread because He was hungry. He responded, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4 quoting Deut. 8:3, “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.”) Bread is a symbol for the word of God, which is our spiritual food.
The ultimate bread is Jesus Christ himself. The only bread that will satisfy completely and forever is the provision of the Lord Jesus Himself.
Jesus said to those who had eaten the miraculous meal of bread and fish (John 6:27) “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
Then He told them that He Himself is that food: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)
That is what we remember when we come to the Lord’s table. Jesus is the bread of life. We need Him desperately. We need Him daily, moment by moment. He is our life. We have died with Him and are raised to walk in newness of life as He lives through us. Daily.
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[1] Martin Luther, quoted in MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1985). Matthew (p. 388). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Donald Cantrell, The Model Prayer – Our Request, http://sermons.pastorlife.com/members/sermon.asp?USERID=&SERMON_ID=6583
[3] Colin Smith, God’s Provision, https://openthebible.org/sermon/gods-provision/
