Give Us This Day our Daily Bread

Now, I want to take this in two different directions. The most obvious would be the physical side of things. In Philippians, the Apostle Paul reminds the believers that "our God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory." Phil 4:19 When I pray this part of the prayer, I often think of the children of Israel wandering through the wilderness. Everyday, God gave them enough Manna to get them through that day. He also commanded them not to gather more than they needed for that day. Why would He have done that? He was teaching them to daily trust Him, daily for their needs.

Jesus taught us in the sermon on the mount, "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will put on. Is not the life more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do the reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? And why take you thought for clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith?

"Therefore take no thought, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'Wherewithal will we be clothed?' (For after all these things do the nations seek;) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things. But you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you." (Matt 6:25-33)

Need I say more? Paul said to Timothy: "When we have food and clothing, we shall be satisfied with these." (I Tim 6:8) Again, to the Philippian church, he said, "Not that I speak in respect of need, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (Phil 4:11)

I could give countless Biblical examples - The widow and her son who's barrel never went empty. The widow who obeyed Elisha and filled the vessels with oil until she had enough to pay her debts. But I can think of examples in my own life - how I watched my mother pray and God send someone with groceries to our house or someone to give her money to pay a bill. God is always faithful to take care of our physical needs, if we serve Him in the greater things.

Now, the greater things I'm talking about are found in John chapter six. Jesus had just performed a great miracle before the people by multiplying the loaves and fishes which fed five thousand. The next day, the people come to Him asking for a sign. They reminded Him that Moses had given the people Manna. He reminded them that they also all died in the wilderness. But He promised to give them bread from heaven - Himself.

To a Jew, who's been taught all their life that eating human flesh and drinking any form of blood is a sin, this had to be a complete shock every part of their system! But He told them plainly that that was the only way to have eternal life. He said, "He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, dwells in Me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats Me, even he shall live by Me. This is that bread which came down from Heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eats of this bread shall live forever." John 6:56-58

So, was He commanding us to be cannibals? Many mistaken people take this to mean that when they eat communion bread and drink the wine it is His literal flesh and blood. But in verse 63, He explains Himself: "It is the Spirit that makes alive; the flesh profits nothing: the Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life." Take John 1 for another reference: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God. The same was in the beginning with God... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." John 1:1-2, 14

Leviticus 17:11 tells us, "The life of the flesh is in the blood" and what is the life? It is the Spirit. Jesus was the Word. When the Word and the Spirit come together, It is a creative force.

So, now, when you pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" remember, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Deut 8:3. You are asking God to take care of your physical needs, as well as be "strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." Ephs 3:16