Thoughts on "Our Daily Bread"

The Fourth Petition:  Give us this day our daily bread.

What does this mean?  God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all people, though sinful, but we ask in this prayer that God will help us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanks.

I often tell my children, when they are having any sort of conflict, that their response is about them, not about the other person.  The response generated by their character is not dependent upon whether or not the other person deserves forgiveness, or attention, or the food or money they are asking for on a street corner.  It is about the person that my children want to be. 

In a similar but highly magnified way, this petition tells us about God’s character.  God gives all things needed for life to all of us, based on God’s goodness instead of our worthiness.  God’s goodness is not dependent on our praying.  We cannot pray anything that will manipulate God into doing something God would not already do.  Instead, “Give us this day our daily bread” is intended to give us a heartfelt position of gratitude before God.

This daily bread is not just about food, but includes everything that has to do with the needs of this body, including emotional needs.  Luther, in the Small Catechism, said specifically that daily bread includes “everything needed for this life, such as food and clothing, home and property, work and income, a devoted family, an orderly community, good government, favorable weather, peace and health, a good name, and true friends and neighbors.”  Certainly, these things are just as important to our well-being now as in Luther’s day, and even in our prideful moments it is difficult to take responsibility for all of them – especially favorable weather!  But it is important to consider how many small moments go into each of these items, each a blessing and gift from God.  The individuals who built our home, who collect our garbage, who maintain our water and electricity infrastructure, to name only a few.  The farmers who grow our food, the workers who pick and process it, the truckers who transport, the peaceful government that allows all of this to happen – this is all in God’s hands. 

God gives us this prayer not for God’s benefit but for ours, teaching us an awareness of God’s goodness and our dependence.  This petition teaches us to look to God for all our needs, and to trust in and cling to God.  The opposite is when we forget, turn away from God and begin trusting in ourselves.  This leads not only to our spiritual destruction, but to the greed and selfishness that destroys relationships, communities, and even ecosystems. 

It is a danger we face in our bondage to sin that we may think that we have gotten where we are in life by our own efforts, hard work, intelligence, good choices, or merit.  This does not just affect our attitude toward God, but also toward other humans.  If I believe that I deserve what I have because of my own actions and choices, then people who have less must deserve less.  Instead of being grateful for God’s gifts and then sharing them with others, I become prone to greed and all its destructiveness.  On the other side, if I mistakenly believe that circumstances are dependent upon my merit, I will be prone to despair in moments of difficulty. 

We should remember that this petition, however, is not first, but fourth.  Perhaps this is to teach us that daily bread, though important, is not the most important thing.  First is the Name of God, the Kingdom of God, the Will of God.  Then comes attention to our daily needs.  There is a purpose to this attention to our needs of this life, and that is to draw us closer to the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ our Savior.  God provides nourishment for this body to all, good or evil, regardless of our prayers, and in the same way Jesus Christ died on the cross for all, good and evil, those who believe and those who do not.  It is not a coincidence that we pray this petition in our worship just before we receive Communion – for it is fulfilled in the most perfect way in the sacrament of body and blood, given and shed for you. 

Therefore, we ask in this prayer that we may realize that all gifts come from God, and ask that our gratitude would contain awestruck wonder equal to that realization.  Further, this prayer reminds us that in Jesus Christ we have not only earthly bread, but eternal bread of life through which we have the unimaginable hope of heaven.  It is in this gratitude that we, like St. Paul, can declare “I have learned the secret of being content in every and any circumstance, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)