Reading: Exodus 16:4-5, 15-18; Matthew
6:11; Luke 11:3
"Give us today our daily bread." How basic is that? Jesus instructs us to include in our prayers a request for food as basic and simple as bread. But our nutrition savvy appetites immediately spring into action and defend our cravings for more!
"Oh no, Jesus! We need more than bread! We need fruits and vegetables and dairy and proteins! Bread isn't even that good for you with all those carbs and gluten! But, there it stands, "give us this day our daily bread." No more, no less; and not even with butter.
However sometimes one piece of bread means a lot. During WWII, a story is told of an orphanage that housed many refugee children who had lost their parents to the Holocaust. These children had endured much suffering and tragedy in their young lives, and many of them had experienced some starvation before being taken in. The children thrived under the care of the staff and appeared to be recovering as well as could be expected.
At night, however, all the children would begin crying inconsolably. It was discovered that giving the children a piece of bread to hold while they were falling asleep, calmed them down and assuaged their fear of facing starvation again. The children were well fed during the day, but they needed the comfort of knowing that they would have at least something to eat tomorrow. Bread, without butter, was all they needed to be reassured that they would live another day. The children’s cries were very like our prayer, “Give us some bread, daily bread. We depend upon you to meet our basic needs. We cannot help ourselves.”
To a starving person, bread is enough. To a poor person, a day's pay for a day's work is sufficient. For the travelers in the wilderness, daily rations of manna and quail were enough. When did we learn that it wasn't? What if we still trusted our Father to truly give us our daily bread so that we didn’t stock pile all kinds of food in our refrigerators and freezers only to end up throwing so much of it away when it passes its expiration date? What would our walk with Him look like if, every day, we had to trust Him to meet our needs?
On more than one day, famous orphanage manager and prayer warrior George Mueller had his little charges sit down to an empty table at meal time and give thanks for what God was about to provide. Then there came a knock on the door. One time it was a milk delivery man, back in the days of fresh milk on a horse drawn cart. He announced that his cart had broken, he wouldn’t have time to deliver all of it and it would spoil unless, he was wondering, would anyone in the house like some free milk? Another day it was a bread wagon. God always provided for those orphaned children as George Mueller literally prayed for daily bread every day. Is it possible that the poor know something about their heavenly Father that we do not? Is it possible that our many blessings of provision have obscured our view of the true giver of all blessing?
How sad for us. We think that we are self-sufficient, but we are not. Do we give God the credit for the job that we have that enables us to pay the bills and put food on our table? When we are in lack, is our first appeal to Him to meet our basic needs? He is the source of all good things, directly or indirectly. What we need to ask ourselves is, do we have more than we need? Are we the means that God wishes to use to bless our brothers and sisters who are in need? Am I willing to share? Am I the answer to another's prayer for daily bread? Is that another part of His Will on this earth?
One way we have of showing our trust that God will meet our daily needs is when we plan to give our regular offering to God. The tithe of ten percent of our income is what God suggests should be the basic starting point of trusting him to meet our needs. Anyone who thinks they can’t afford to tithe doesn’t really have a money problem. They have a problem with trusting God. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. You may not know where the money will come from if you give so much away to God. But God does know how he will meet your need. I have never met a tither who is sorry he did it. I have never met a tither who is stingy or broke. I have met plenty who have nearly miraculous stories to tell of God’s provision. I have met plenty who are joyful and thankful because they see that God is worthy of our trust. And I am happy to testify that Kathy and I are among them. God does give daily bread.
What really is our daily bread anyway? What are we really asking for in this part of the Christian’s Prayer? Is it really just for food and drink? I think not. When Jesus faced temptation in the wilderness after he was baptized, he was probably praying and wondering when he would get a bite to eat. After 40 days of fasting he was very hungry. That’s when satan challenged him to provide for himself. “Turn these stones into bread.” That is, bread for his physical body. But Jesus quoted Scripture saying, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
In John 1 we learn that Jesus is the Word of God, the Word was God and the Word was with God in the beginning. In John 6:29-35, Jesus who is the Word of God says, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” This is the Word of the Lord.
When they said, “always give us this bread” they came very close to praying the line of our prayer we are looking at today. They also were asking the right person. They didn’t believe Jesus was God, nevertheless they prayed to God for bread. Also, they thought they were asking for physical sustenance. But the true bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world is none other than Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the bread we ought to pray for daily.
Listen. In John 4:31- 34, right after Jesus has had a conversation with the Samaritan Woman the disciples show up and they know Jesus hasn’t had any breakfast yet, so they say, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
That is such a key passage to understand this line of the prayer. We need to understand how spiritually nourishing it is to do God’s will. It really satisfies. We really already know this. How many times have you heard someone testifying about a time of ministry to those less fortunate and who said, “I thought I was going to bless them. But they blessed me!” When we give to others out of otherish love we experience what this saying really manes, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Doing the will of God by showing the world his love really feeds our souls in a wonderful way that Jesus knew about and wants us to know about too. Learn it by doing it. Perhaps that line in our prayer has a dual meaning. No, I am sure it does. Give us this day our daily bread means keep us a live with necessary food. We depend upon you O Lord. And it also means, give me a chance to really live by loving my neighbor today with the love that comes from your Spirit in me all while I trust in you to provide all our needs.
There is one more thing to say about the significance of praying for daily bread. That is that the act of eating is best when it is shared with another. We pray for “our” daily bread. I should not just pray that I get enough to eat. That is selfish again. But if we pray for our daily bread it helps us remember that life itself is something we share.
When we pray, “give us today our daily bread,” let’s do so remembering that God supplies all our needs. If it were not for God’s gracious hand of provision making it possible for us to find food or grow food or even just to eat food using teeth and gums designed by Him and kept healthy by Him, we would quickly waste away. An interesting illustration of this is in Genesis 47. That’s the chapter in which we read about Joseph helping the Egyptians get through the horrible seven year famine. As the famine persisted, the people used up all their resources. Here comes the point. They were unable to get food. God didn’t make the crops grow or didn’t send the needed water.
But Joseph had prepared for this. He had plenty of grain stored up to tide them over during the famine. Note that the average citizen in that day had absolutely no power to create food, or acquire it from anywhere but Pharaoh’s store houses. Here is the illustrative point. In the same way that the people would not have eaten if the need had not been provided for ahead of time, it is also true that we cannot save ourselves from our sinful condition. If God had not made provision for our sin ahead of time, there would have been no way for us to have any forgiveness at all. We would all die of spiritual starvation because we cannot create life for ourselves or find it anywhere but in what has been provided by Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
Table fellowship is so important in ancient Middle Eastern Culture. It is a bonding experience still today. How often have you heard about the importance of families eating together so the parents and children get some quality time in a relaxed atmosphere to just talk and share their lives together? There are many instances in Scripture where we see the significance of sharing a meal together.
When Abraham rescued his nephew Lot after a war had taken him and his whole family as captives, it is written that Melchizedek brought out bread and wine for a fellowship meal to give thanks for the victory God had given Abraham. When God approached Abraham with two of his angels as they were on their way to deal with Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham begged the men to stay with him and eat with him. He prepared a meal for them. It was the height of hospitality.
When Moses brought the people of Israel to meet with God at Mt. Sinai, one of the significant things that happened was that God invited the elders of the people to come up on the mountain for a time of fellowship with God. You will remember that at the beginning of their time at Sinai everybody was very afraid to go near the mountain. Moses explained that God was demonstrating that he is to be respected. But then near the end of their time there the elders were invited to have fellowship with God and they ate a meal before him. Eating helps us relax. Eating together is an informal time of enjoying each other’s company. God also wants that between us and him, fellowship, relationship, family time. We can understand how significant that is. For example, use your imagination to consider the difference between how you would feel if you were invited to meet with an important and respected authority figure versus being invited to eat with him. A meeting is business. A meal is social.
In the Laws handed down to Moses on Mt. Sinai God specified three festivals to be celebrated each year with feasting, great celebration meals in which to rejoice before God, giving thanks for his gracious and bountiful provision. Our Lord’s Supper, at the Communion Table is a fellowship meal between us and God. God is present as our host. What better day to celebrate Communion than when we are deepening our understanding of “Give us today our daily bread?” What better day to reflect on what God means by daily bread than on a Communion Sunday?
So as we prepare to celebrate the Lord’s upper and enter into closer fellowship with God our Father I want to end this message with a prayer. It was written by someone else, but I am sure you will understand why it is appropriate to use it here. This is not my house. This is God’s house. I cannot tell God who is welcome here and who is not. This is not my table.
I do not sit at the head as host. It is the table of Christ. He is Host. I cannot tell the Host
who can sit here and who cannot.
This is not my food on this sacred table. I did not prepare it. It is not my blood, my body.
It is the very life of the Christ laid out here. I cannot tell Him, this one who constantly ate with sinners, who is worthy to partake of it and who is not. The doors of God’s House are open to
all who need shelter, who crave the fellowship and friendship of God, and even to those who
hate God or cannot bring themselves to trust that God exists or could care for them. Anyone, everyone is welcome as honored guests in God’s house.
This table of Christ is long and it has many chairs. There is always room for one more, for those craving the fellowship of the sacred table, a place to belong, to be somebody to Somebody. Anyone, everyone has a place at the table of Christ.
This food, simple yet divine, is bountiful, abundant, ample for all, especially those who are hungry and thirsty for what mere bread and drink cannot supply. Anyone, everyone has a plate and a portion served by the very hand of the Christ. No one is sent away hungry or thirsty here.
Lord, who am I that you swing open your door and embrace me? Who am I that you escort me to your table and pull out a chair for me? Who am I that you would provide such wondrous and costly food? How can I but humbly bow my head at such grace? How can I but embrace, like you, all your guests, all who, like me, are unworthy of your house, unfit for your table and food, yet are welcomed, seated and fed anyway? Amen.
"Give us today our daily bread." How basic is that? Jesus instructs us to include in our prayers a request for food as basic and simple as bread. But our nutrition savvy appetites immediately spring into action and defend our cravings for more!
"Oh no, Jesus! We need more than bread! We need fruits and vegetables and dairy and proteins! Bread isn't even that good for you with all those carbs and gluten! But, there it stands, "give us this day our daily bread." No more, no less; and not even with butter.
However sometimes one piece of bread means a lot. During WWII, a story is told of an orphanage that housed many refugee children who had lost their parents to the Holocaust. These children had endured much suffering and tragedy in their young lives, and many of them had experienced some starvation before being taken in. The children thrived under the care of the staff and appeared to be recovering as well as could be expected.
At night, however, all the children would begin crying inconsolably. It was discovered that giving the children a piece of bread to hold while they were falling asleep, calmed them down and assuaged their fear of facing starvation again. The children were well fed during the day, but they needed the comfort of knowing that they would have at least something to eat tomorrow. Bread, without butter, was all they needed to be reassured that they would live another day. The children’s cries were very like our prayer, “Give us some bread, daily bread. We depend upon you to meet our basic needs. We cannot help ourselves.”
To a starving person, bread is enough. To a poor person, a day's pay for a day's work is sufficient. For the travelers in the wilderness, daily rations of manna and quail were enough. When did we learn that it wasn't? What if we still trusted our Father to truly give us our daily bread so that we didn’t stock pile all kinds of food in our refrigerators and freezers only to end up throwing so much of it away when it passes its expiration date? What would our walk with Him look like if, every day, we had to trust Him to meet our needs?
On more than one day, famous orphanage manager and prayer warrior George Mueller had his little charges sit down to an empty table at meal time and give thanks for what God was about to provide. Then there came a knock on the door. One time it was a milk delivery man, back in the days of fresh milk on a horse drawn cart. He announced that his cart had broken, he wouldn’t have time to deliver all of it and it would spoil unless, he was wondering, would anyone in the house like some free milk? Another day it was a bread wagon. God always provided for those orphaned children as George Mueller literally prayed for daily bread every day. Is it possible that the poor know something about their heavenly Father that we do not? Is it possible that our many blessings of provision have obscured our view of the true giver of all blessing?
How sad for us. We think that we are self-sufficient, but we are not. Do we give God the credit for the job that we have that enables us to pay the bills and put food on our table? When we are in lack, is our first appeal to Him to meet our basic needs? He is the source of all good things, directly or indirectly. What we need to ask ourselves is, do we have more than we need? Are we the means that God wishes to use to bless our brothers and sisters who are in need? Am I willing to share? Am I the answer to another's prayer for daily bread? Is that another part of His Will on this earth?
One way we have of showing our trust that God will meet our daily needs is when we plan to give our regular offering to God. The tithe of ten percent of our income is what God suggests should be the basic starting point of trusting him to meet our needs. Anyone who thinks they can’t afford to tithe doesn’t really have a money problem. They have a problem with trusting God. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. You may not know where the money will come from if you give so much away to God. But God does know how he will meet your need. I have never met a tither who is sorry he did it. I have never met a tither who is stingy or broke. I have met plenty who have nearly miraculous stories to tell of God’s provision. I have met plenty who are joyful and thankful because they see that God is worthy of our trust. And I am happy to testify that Kathy and I are among them. God does give daily bread.
What really is our daily bread anyway? What are we really asking for in this part of the Christian’s Prayer? Is it really just for food and drink? I think not. When Jesus faced temptation in the wilderness after he was baptized, he was probably praying and wondering when he would get a bite to eat. After 40 days of fasting he was very hungry. That’s when satan challenged him to provide for himself. “Turn these stones into bread.” That is, bread for his physical body. But Jesus quoted Scripture saying, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
In John 1 we learn that Jesus is the Word of God, the Word was God and the Word was with God in the beginning. In John 6:29-35, Jesus who is the Word of God says, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” This is the Word of the Lord.
When they said, “always give us this bread” they came very close to praying the line of our prayer we are looking at today. They also were asking the right person. They didn’t believe Jesus was God, nevertheless they prayed to God for bread. Also, they thought they were asking for physical sustenance. But the true bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world is none other than Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the bread we ought to pray for daily.
Listen. In John 4:31- 34, right after Jesus has had a conversation with the Samaritan Woman the disciples show up and they know Jesus hasn’t had any breakfast yet, so they say, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
That is such a key passage to understand this line of the prayer. We need to understand how spiritually nourishing it is to do God’s will. It really satisfies. We really already know this. How many times have you heard someone testifying about a time of ministry to those less fortunate and who said, “I thought I was going to bless them. But they blessed me!” When we give to others out of otherish love we experience what this saying really manes, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Doing the will of God by showing the world his love really feeds our souls in a wonderful way that Jesus knew about and wants us to know about too. Learn it by doing it. Perhaps that line in our prayer has a dual meaning. No, I am sure it does. Give us this day our daily bread means keep us a live with necessary food. We depend upon you O Lord. And it also means, give me a chance to really live by loving my neighbor today with the love that comes from your Spirit in me all while I trust in you to provide all our needs.
There is one more thing to say about the significance of praying for daily bread. That is that the act of eating is best when it is shared with another. We pray for “our” daily bread. I should not just pray that I get enough to eat. That is selfish again. But if we pray for our daily bread it helps us remember that life itself is something we share.
When we pray, “give us today our daily bread,” let’s do so remembering that God supplies all our needs. If it were not for God’s gracious hand of provision making it possible for us to find food or grow food or even just to eat food using teeth and gums designed by Him and kept healthy by Him, we would quickly waste away. An interesting illustration of this is in Genesis 47. That’s the chapter in which we read about Joseph helping the Egyptians get through the horrible seven year famine. As the famine persisted, the people used up all their resources. Here comes the point. They were unable to get food. God didn’t make the crops grow or didn’t send the needed water.
But Joseph had prepared for this. He had plenty of grain stored up to tide them over during the famine. Note that the average citizen in that day had absolutely no power to create food, or acquire it from anywhere but Pharaoh’s store houses. Here is the illustrative point. In the same way that the people would not have eaten if the need had not been provided for ahead of time, it is also true that we cannot save ourselves from our sinful condition. If God had not made provision for our sin ahead of time, there would have been no way for us to have any forgiveness at all. We would all die of spiritual starvation because we cannot create life for ourselves or find it anywhere but in what has been provided by Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
Table fellowship is so important in ancient Middle Eastern Culture. It is a bonding experience still today. How often have you heard about the importance of families eating together so the parents and children get some quality time in a relaxed atmosphere to just talk and share their lives together? There are many instances in Scripture where we see the significance of sharing a meal together.
When Abraham rescued his nephew Lot after a war had taken him and his whole family as captives, it is written that Melchizedek brought out bread and wine for a fellowship meal to give thanks for the victory God had given Abraham. When God approached Abraham with two of his angels as they were on their way to deal with Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham begged the men to stay with him and eat with him. He prepared a meal for them. It was the height of hospitality.
When Moses brought the people of Israel to meet with God at Mt. Sinai, one of the significant things that happened was that God invited the elders of the people to come up on the mountain for a time of fellowship with God. You will remember that at the beginning of their time at Sinai everybody was very afraid to go near the mountain. Moses explained that God was demonstrating that he is to be respected. But then near the end of their time there the elders were invited to have fellowship with God and they ate a meal before him. Eating helps us relax. Eating together is an informal time of enjoying each other’s company. God also wants that between us and him, fellowship, relationship, family time. We can understand how significant that is. For example, use your imagination to consider the difference between how you would feel if you were invited to meet with an important and respected authority figure versus being invited to eat with him. A meeting is business. A meal is social.
In the Laws handed down to Moses on Mt. Sinai God specified three festivals to be celebrated each year with feasting, great celebration meals in which to rejoice before God, giving thanks for his gracious and bountiful provision. Our Lord’s Supper, at the Communion Table is a fellowship meal between us and God. God is present as our host. What better day to celebrate Communion than when we are deepening our understanding of “Give us today our daily bread?” What better day to reflect on what God means by daily bread than on a Communion Sunday?
So as we prepare to celebrate the Lord’s upper and enter into closer fellowship with God our Father I want to end this message with a prayer. It was written by someone else, but I am sure you will understand why it is appropriate to use it here. This is not my house. This is God’s house. I cannot tell God who is welcome here and who is not. This is not my table.
I do not sit at the head as host. It is the table of Christ. He is Host. I cannot tell the Host
who can sit here and who cannot.
This is not my food on this sacred table. I did not prepare it. It is not my blood, my body.
It is the very life of the Christ laid out here. I cannot tell Him, this one who constantly ate with sinners, who is worthy to partake of it and who is not. The doors of God’s House are open to
all who need shelter, who crave the fellowship and friendship of God, and even to those who
hate God or cannot bring themselves to trust that God exists or could care for them. Anyone, everyone is welcome as honored guests in God’s house.
This table of Christ is long and it has many chairs. There is always room for one more, for those craving the fellowship of the sacred table, a place to belong, to be somebody to Somebody. Anyone, everyone has a place at the table of Christ.
This food, simple yet divine, is bountiful, abundant, ample for all, especially those who are hungry and thirsty for what mere bread and drink cannot supply. Anyone, everyone has a plate and a portion served by the very hand of the Christ. No one is sent away hungry or thirsty here.
Lord, who am I that you swing open your door and embrace me? Who am I that you escort me to your table and pull out a chair for me? Who am I that you would provide such wondrous and costly food? How can I but humbly bow my head at such grace? How can I but embrace, like you, all your guests, all who, like me, are unworthy of your house, unfit for your table and food, yet are welcomed, seated and fed anyway? Amen.
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