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Our Daily Bread Part 1 of 2
From Timeless Grace Gems
J. R. Miller, 1900
From Timeless Grace Gems
J. R. Miller, 1900
"Give us this day our daily bread." Matthew 6:11
We are half -way through the Lord's Prayer - and come now to the first request for anything for ourselves. We have learned that God must always be put first, and that the honoring of his name, the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will - are always to be thought about and sought for - before any matter of our own.
Yet it is a great comfort to know that we may bring our physical needs to God in prayer. Throughout the Scriptures, we are taught that nothing which concerns our life in any way - is too small to be of interest to our heavenly Father. While the specific prayer here is for bread - all our physical needs are included. In an exquisite passage in the same sermon of Jesus, we are taught that our heavenly Father cares for the birds and provides for them, and clothes the flowers in their gorgeous beauty which lasts for only a day. Then we are taught that the same love which thus provides for the birds and the lilies - will much more care for us! Nothing necessary for our life is too small or too earthly - to put into the heart of a prayer. This petition for daily bread, like all the sayings of Christ, is full of deep meaning. Every word has its rich suggestions.
"Give us this day our daily bread." We ask God to give us bread. We thus recognize our dependence on him for it. It is difficult to offer this petition with real meaning, when we have plenty in our hands and no fear of need. We can conceive of the very poor, with no bread, on the verge of starving, uttering the prayer and putting their whole heart into it. The bitter sense of need makes the cry a real one for them. But for those who have never felt a pang of actual hunger, and have never been without a store from which to draw for tomorrow's provision, it is not easy to realize the sense of dependence, which the petition implies. This is one of the words of Christ, whose full meaning only experience can teach.
Yet it is true that whatever abundance may be ours, we are actually dependent upon God for each day's bread! The story of the forty years of the miracle of manna in the wilderness, is but a parable of another miracle immeasurably greater - the providing of bread for all earth's millions - for all the days of all the centuries! What we call the laws of nature are but our Father's ordinary ways of working. The regularity of these laws - is but the proof of divine faithfulness. Suppose that for a single year, or but for a week - God's miracle of bread should cease from the earth, what would be the consequences? The unbroken continuity of God's mercy of bread - hinders our appreciation of its greatness, and its necessity to us.
"Give us this day our daily bread." This prayer implies, also, that all the bread of the world is God's! "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." The bread belongs to him, and what we need can become ours - only through his gift to us. We may take it and use it without asking him for it - but, if we do, we take that to which we have no right. Even the food is on our table, ready to be eaten - it is not yet ours until we have asked God for it.
Yet those who pray not, nor even think of God - seem to be fed, as well as the righteous - and sometimes more bountifully. God "makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust." But there is a difference. Those who ask God for their bread - get it as his gift and with his blessing upon it; while those who take it without asking for it, get it, and may be fed - but they miss the blessing of God that makes rich, that gives value to everything we have. This suggests the true meaning and the fitness of the Christian custom - of asking a blessing, or "saying grace" before a meal.
"Give us this day our daily bread." The form of the prayer teaches the lesson of unselfishness. It is not "Give me" but "Give us." We cannot come to God for ourselves alone. We must ask bread for others, for all - even for our enemies, if we have enemies. Especially must we think of the needy, the destitute, asking God to give them bread. If we are sincere we must be ready also, so far as we have opportunity and so far as we are able - to help to answer our own prayer for others, by sharing our plenty with those who lack. "Whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need, and shuts up his compassion from him - how does the love of God abide in him?"
One of the most beautiful commentaries on this teaching is in the account of the way the people of the New Testament church lived together. After the day of Pentecost, in the glow of the new -born love of the disciples, those who had abundance, gave to those who were poor - so that there was an equality - and none lacked. Only thus can any follower of Christ carry out the teaching of the Master. We must be ready to share our bread - with our brother who lacks.
"Give us this day our daily bread." There is a limitation in this petition. In the other form of the prayer, in Luke, the words vary somewhat, "Give us day by day our daily bread." In Matthew, it is a prayer only for the one day - with no thought of tomorrow. In Luke, the prayer takes in other days - but only as they come, one day at a time. In both forms we are taught to pray for only the bread of one day.
There is a deep lesson in this teaching. Life is not given to us by the year or the month - but by single days. Night is the horizon which bounds our vision; we see not the morrow, and we are to confine our thought and concern, to the little space between the rising and the setting of the sun. This does not forbid forethought - the Bible encourages wise and proper care for the future. But all we are authorized to ask God - to give us what is enough for the present day. Even if in the evening our last crust is eaten and there is nothing in store for tomorrow, we need not be afraid, nor think that God has forgotten us. When the morrow comes, we may ask for the morrow's own bread - and know that God will hear us and answer our prayer in the right way.