21. Our Daily Bread

“Give us this day our daily bread”  [Matthew 6:11]

This simple line lies at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer and at the very center of the Sermon on the Mount. And it really does seem simple, maybe too simple. Of all the profound and revolutionary statements Jesus made throughout His famous sermon, could this really be the center point?

At face value, it’s a request for bread. Bread is important. It is the staple food in the Middle East and it represents all the food we eat—all that sustains us physically. In our modern society, our daily needs are a bit more complicated than just bread. You could think of  “daily bread” as all that you need to survive in today’s world (all that you need, not all that you want). This could mean the gas to get you to and from work or school, money for rent and groceries and whatever other essentials you have to cover. Daily bread represents that which sustains us. Jesus knows the world we live in and He knows our needs.

When Jesus teaches us to pray for “daily” bread, He is teaching us to pray for bread that never runs out. We see this in the Book of Exodus when the Israelites spent forty years living in the wilderness. Every morning (except on the Sabbath), a bread called “manna” came with the morning dew (Exodus 16). The Israelites were told to gather just what they needed for each day, trusting that there would be more the next day. And this was hard for them to do. At first, some of the Israelites gathered more than they needed for the day. They stored it in their tents for the next day, not sure if they could take God at His word. And what happened? When they woke up the next morning, their stored manna was stinky and filled with maggots. Meanwhile, outside their tents, the ground was covered with fresh manna, just as God had promised it would be.   

We aren’t so different from the Israelites. Our human tendency is toward fear and a lack of trust. We are plagued by the overwhelming question, “what if?” What if there’s not enough for tomorrow? What if something terrible happens and I run out of resources? This is a scarcity mindset, it’s a symptom of the broken world we inhabit. The natural response to the fear of not having enough is to begin storing up for tomorrow. When we believe the lie of scarcity, we begin to stockpile resources and hoard up for ourselves in order to secure an abundance for tomorrow. This is a mindset that reinforces the idea that we’re on our own and if we don’t look out for ourselves, who will? 

And yet, Jesus is suggesting that there’s another way. He recognizes our broken tendencies toward the fear of not having enough. This is why, in His huge love for us, Jesus teaches us to ask both for the resources we need for each day, and for the assurance that the Lord will continue to meet all of our needs. Jesus’ solution is that we would know Our Father and trust Him so deeply with tomorrow, that we see no need to stockpile and hoard resources for today.  We know that He will provide for us tomorrow, just as He did yesterday, just as He has today. Believing it is God who provides for us rather than us providing for ourselves is a huge act of faith. When we live this way, we are acknowledging our citizenship in the kingdom of heaven, a kingdom of abundant resources.  

If we truly believe that God will provide all that we need each day, then we will be more willing to share what we have with the people around us. Living in a reality of abundance rather than scarcity means that we don’t have to worry about running out. Notice that the prayer isn’t for “my” daily bread, but for “our” daily bread. Jesus teaches us to pray to Our Father for our bread—we are all a part of the family of God. When we pray for bread, we are praying that our neighbors will have enough too. The kingdom of heaven is a place of generosity and hospitality. We will be truly nourished by our daily bread when we are gathered with our neighbors at a table, sharing our bread and lives with each other.