BREAD!

Continuing on the theme of the Lord’s Prayer …

Give us this day our daily bread.
Matthew 6:11

This request recognizes our dependence God, the one who provides. He is the one who gives us health, gets us a job, enables us to earn, survive, live. We depend on Him. Totally. Completely. Utterly. Every breath in our bodies, every pulse of our hearts, every impulse across our synapses—sustained by God, given by God, graciously provided by God.

… in Him we live and move and exist.
Acts 17:28

We are dependent on Him, and we acknowledge that verity as we make our request for our daily bread.

Not daily cake, but daily bread! Basic necessities, the essentials of life. “Daily rice, Lord, give to us,” as we of Asian origin would rather say. (Though, personally, peanut butter—Jif— will do fine, thank you!)

So this line of the Lord’s Prayer eliminates greed, because we seek the basic necessities—food, clothing, transportation. Not everything in the Neimann Marcus catalog.

We’ve already recognized that the King and His kingdom is coming. In fact, we’ve prayed it along. When it comes, in that realm and in that life, we will be blessed beyond imagination.

… just as it is written,
“Things which eye has not seen
and ear has not heard,
and which have not entered
the heart of man—
all that God has prepared
for those who love him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9

But not necessarily here-and-now. Not necessarily on this side of death. That day will come! And soon!

In this life, instead, we are to depend on Him for the basics and therewith to be content.

For we have brought
nothing into the world,
so we cannot take anything
out of it either.
If we have food and covering,
with these we shall be content.
1 Timothy 6:7–8

Contentment vs. Greed. A constant struggle that we all face, irrespective of financial state. Are we content enough not to seek for more, and to give freely?

Did you notice the first-person plural pronouns? “Give us this day our daily bread”? So what happens if I and my sister are praying for bread, and I get two loaves and she gets nothing?

Happens all the time, doesn’t it? Some Christians are wealthy. Some are not. Some have more than what they need. Others hardly have enough. Some never go through financial crunches. Others barely get through the day.

So what if I get two loaves and my brother gets zero? Then what?

I didn’t get God’s provision to eat one now and to freeze another for a rainy day. Oh, no. God gave me more than what I need to share.

Worldwide, 29,000 children die every day of preventable causes (a child every 2 seconds)! 800 million children are malnourished. 1 billion do not have access clean water, 8 million children are refugees, and 15 million children have lost parents to AIDS. They, without loaves, and we with hundreds/thousands each.

What would God have us do?

“Is it not to divide your bread
with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor
into the house?
When you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself
from your own flesh?
Then your light
will break out like the dawn,
and your recovery
will speedily spring forth,
and your righteousness
will go before you.”
Isaiah 58:7–8

So pray with responsibility! Give freely, cheerfully, responsibly, to those who have no loaves of bread, for God has abundantly answered our prayer to “Give us this day our daily bread.”