Daily Bread

Give us this day our daily bread.

Matthew 6:11

One of the lines of demarcation between poor and wealthy people in the world has to do with food. If you have no food at the beginning of the day and are forced to find food for your meals, you could be called poor. If you have all the food you need sitting in your cupboards at the beginning of the day, you could be called wealthy. In other words, the concept of “reserves” or “ready supply” moves a person from the category of poverty to non-poverty.

There is nothing official about that classification; it serves only to highlight the temptation to trust in reserves rather than trust in God. It is not wrong to have reserves; the Bible is filled with illustrations of the wisdom of preparing for the future (Genesis 41:46-49; Proverbs 6:6-11). But it is interesting that when Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He taught them to ask God for daily—not weekly, monthly, or yearly—bread. Why? Because it reminds us who the source of bread (and everything) really is. Even if we have food at the beginning of the day, asking and thanking God for daily bread reminds us of His blessing and reminds us that “all things come from [Him]” (1 Chronicles 29:14).

God is committed to caring daily for “the birds of the air. . . . Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26).

A piece of bread with God’s love is angels’ food.

THOMAS WATSON^a