Our Daily Bread

Give us this day our daily bread” – Matthew 6:11

This section of the Lord ’s Prayer is not simply a petition for food. Certainly, God knows what we need even before we ourselves know. But implicit in the request for daily bread is a recognition of how utterly dependent we are on God for all things important to life, things like food, shelter, safety, health, clothing, and so forth.

To gloss over that truth places us in spiritual danger. Notice this warning in Deuteronomy:

“When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today;"

"Otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God . . . [and] you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth . . ..” (Deuteronomy 8:10-18).

Did you catch that? “Beware,” the Lord warns, that when our lives flow easily and our saving accounts flourish that we not ascribe our life-successes to ‘lucky breaks.’

What a sad and thankless thought is that.

Who do we think it is who gives us our skills and intelligence, and who directs us to the right places at the right times? It has always been – and always will be – God working behind the scenes, directing and orchestrating events in and around our life for good, according to His purpose.

“Give us this day our daily bread” ought to always remind us as often as we pray those words, that God alone provides us all things we need.

He just would like us to remember to thank Him.