Talking to God - Give Us This Day

Matthew 6:9-13

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we first focus on God. Our Father in Heaven, whose name is lifted up and obeyed, on earth as it is in heaven. Now, in this part of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus shifts the focus. Having praised God for who He is, we now begin to ask of God. As in Philippians 4:6-7, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

Now it is the time to make our requests to God. 

We begin by requesting our daily bread. This is a prayer for God to meet our physical needs. It is a recognition that God is the giver and sustainer of life itself. Sometimes we need reminding that Every good and perfect gift is from above. (James 1:17a) but this prayer keeps us rooted in this truth. Even our food itself is a gift from God. 

Did you notice that Jesus didn’t teach us to pray for weekly bread? It was daily bread. This would have made his original audience think of one event in their history. Does anyone know what this would be? In Exodus 16, the Israelites had come out of Egyptian captivity, but now they were grumbling that they were hungry. The Israelites grumbled to Moses and Aaron, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” (Exodus 16:3-5)

God provided them bread from heaven, which they called “manna” (which simply means “what is it?”) He provided it each day except for the Sabbath. If they tried to keep it for the next day, they found it rotten and full of maggots. They had to completely trust in God, every day, for their daily bread. This kind of trust is what Jesus is teaching. To utterly and completely rely on God for everything.

How does God answer this prayer? When we pray to God, asking us to provide daily bread, sometimes God provides miraculously, as in the time when Jesus was teaching and healing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and the people were hungry. Jesus asked his disciple Philip where they would get enough bread for the people to eat. Philip responded that it would take half a year’s wages to just give everyone a bite to eat. However, Jesus, multiplied a boy’s lunch, five small loaves and two fish, and fed 5000 with it, leaving 12 baskets full of leftovers.

But the primary way God provides is through work, as we can see in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12, where Paul tells the church in Thessalonica, “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” God has given most of us the energy, resources, and opportunity to work. For those who are unable to work, He provides care through those who can work. Whether He does so directly or indirectly, God is always the source of our physical well-being. He makes the earth produce what we need, and He gives us the ability to procure it. MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1995). Alone with God (p. 95). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

But this prayer is more than for physical provision. After Jesus fed the 500, people were looking for him, but Jesus called them out. He said, “You aren’t looking for me even for the signs and wonders, but because I gave you free food.” In John 6:32-35, Jesus tells the people, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” 

Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, asking God to provide us our daily bread, we are praying a double prayer. We are asking for physical provision. But we are also asking for more. We ask for Jesus, recognizing that our very life depends on Him, that in Him, we will never go hungry. Indeed, Jesus proclaimed, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6). If you hunger and thirst for a right relationship with God, Jesus will fill you. 

So we continue to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We ask for physical provision, and we ask for Jesus Himself. And we in turn provide the same for those around us.