Matthew 6:11 – The Lord’s Prayer, Part 3
Give us this day our
daily bread.
Can you pray this and mean
it? “Give me this day my daily bread.”
It’s true that even in the US, people go hungry. But the fact of the matter is that for most
of us, we struggle much more with eating too many calories than with eating too
few. According to the CDC, more than
one-third of Americans are obese.[1] It’s also why, according to one article,
dieting has become a “national pastime.”[2] In this article, Kay Uzoma writes, “approximately
45 million Americans diet each year and spend $33 billion on weight-loss
products in their pursuit of a trimmer, fitter body.” We’re not worried about having daily bread. We’re worried about having too much daily
bread!
Another challenge to this part of
the Lord’s Prayer is the fact that, unlike people in first century Judea, we
are not paid day-to-day but rather week-to-week, or more likely,
month-to-month. Thinking about today’s
bread is simply not on our minds as long as we have a job. Add to this the fact that there are safety
nets in our society that help people who lose their jobs, and the relevancy of
this prayer might seem for many simply to fade away.
Someone might also argue that
this prayer is simply too unspiritual.
Why would our Lord care about this anyway? Isn’t praying about bread too earthly? Aren’t we supposed to pray for our souls and
the souls of others? If we spend time
thinking and praying about material things, won’t we be in danger of becoming
materialistic?
The fact of the matter is that it
is both relevant and necessary to ask the Lord to give us our daily bread. Nor is it unspiritual to pray this
prayer. Though it is true that the
Lord’s Prayer focuses primarily on what we could call spiritual priorities, nevertheless,
right in the middle of this prayer is a request that God fill our bellies as
well as our souls with his benefits. The
saints have always looked to God not only for spiritual strength but also for
physical sustenance: “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger: but they that
seek the LORD shall not want any good thing” (Ps. 34:10).
It should be noted at the outset
that praying for bread is not the same as praying for a Cadillac or praying for
a little extra money so you can take that marvelous vacation. Commentators on this verse have noted that
this is a prayer for one’s necessities. The prayer for bread is not just a prayer for
the stuff we use for sandwiches: bread stands for basic needs. Thus, this is not just a prayer for material
things. It is a prayer for physical
needs. Our Lord is not instructing us to
ask the Father to enrich us with large bank accounts. This is no prayer that God would allow us to
win the lottery! Rather, he is
instructing us to ask the Father to sustain us physically while we are on this
earth. Thus, the apostle Paul would
write to Timothy, “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content” (1
Tim. 6:8). To crave for more than this
is to put one in danger of covetousness, which puts one in danger of “destruction
and perdition” (1 Tim. 6:9).
You see this also in the fact
that we are taught to pray for “daily” bread.
Commentators spend a lot of time debating what is meant exactly by this
phrase: the precise meaning of the Greek word (epiousios) is rather difficult to determine since it is used in no
other place outside of the Bible. But it
seems that all the meanings given to it come down to the same thing. Whether it should be translated “bread for
today” or “bread for tomorrow” or “bread necessary for existence,” it is clear
that either way our Lord is teaching us to pray that God provide the needs of
the present. As he will say later on in
this chapter, “Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”
(Mt. 6:34). Bread for today is something
that is necessary; we simply cannot go long without food, and this is what we
are to pray for.
In fact, the way our Lord teaches
us to pray is an implicit warning against covetousness and the desire for
earthly security. We were never meant to
be burdened down with the cares of this world.
“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;
that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Tim. 2:4). That really is hurtful to our souls. In fact, our Lord puts it down to the reason
why his word does not prosper in the hearts of many. In the Parable of the Sower, he likens the
seed which falls on thorny ground as the hearer of the gospel but “the care of
this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh
unfruitful” (Mt. 13:22). Thomas Manton,
in one of his sermons on the Lord’s Prayer, said, “Christ would teach us that
worldly things should be sought in a moderate proportion; if we have sufficient
for a day, for the present want, we should not grasp at too much. Ships lightly laden will pass through the
sea, but when we take too great a burden, the ship will easily sink with every
storm.”[3]
That doesn’t mean that it is
ungodly to be rich. But we are not to
set our heart upon wealth: “If riches increase, set not your heart upon them”
(Ps. 62:10).
But the theology in this prayer
is not meant only to warn against greed.
It is also full of encouragement for the saint. In fact, behind this simple and plain request
for daily bread are some really great and weighty realities about God and his
relationship to those who belong to him.
1. First of all, this petition
teaches us that all that we have comes from God. It is easy to forget this, especially in the
West with the abundance that we have. It’s
also easy to get into the mentality expressed by Jimmy Stewart’s character in
the movie Shenandoah:
“Lord, we
cleared this land, we plowed, sowed, and harvested it, we cooked the harvest,
and it wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all
ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for
every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway for this food we’re
about to eat. Amen.”
What this “prayer” doesn’t reckon
with is the reality that if God hadn’t sent rain, all the clearing, plowing,
and sowing wouldn’t have done any good; it certainly wouldn’t have gone any
further. It also doesn’t reckon with the
reality that God can strike any person down at any moment, that our health and
strength and problem-solving skills are gifts from God and that even with rain
he wouldn’t have had the intelligence to properly cultivate it and get food
from it apart from the grace of God. In
fact, God warned the ancient Israelites against this very mentality: “Beware
that thou forget the Lord thy God . . . for it is he that giveth thee power to
get wealth” (Deut. 8:11-16).
It is true that we have to work
for our food (cf. 1 Tim. 5:8). But it is
also true that God is sovereign over every atom in the universe, and that it is
by his providence that we can earn a living and put food on the table. Moreover, it is not only right to pray to God
for bread because he is sovereign, but also because it belongs to him. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness
thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). “Every beast of the forest is mine, and the
cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all
the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for
the world is mine, and the fullness thereof” (Ps. 50:10-12).
God is sovereign over bread. That is true not only when we have plenty but
also when we have little. And this is
why this is such a precious truth. This
prayer is proof that the sovereign God cares about the physical and material
needs of his children. We need to
remember this in times of plenty and in times of scarcity. In times of plenty we need to remember that
these are gifts from his hand, and pointers to the greater good that we have in
him. And in times of scarcity, we need
to remember that he has not forgotten us.
He loves you and he will take care of you. He can take our little and make much of it. God’s provision doesn’t mean that the provision
will come in the amounts we think are necessary, nor from the places we think
it ought to come. But it does mean that
God will take care of you. “A little
that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked” (Ps.
37:16). “Better is little with the fear
of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith” (Prov. 15:16).
As a child, I saw this kind of
faith in action in my parents, and especially in my dad. He was (and still is) in business for himself
and so if he didn’t get the work done, it didn’t get done. And he did work hard. Nevertheless, there were lean times. And in those times, my dad would lean on the
Lord. He wrote a song based on Psalm
78:19 (“Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the
wilderness?”), the chorus of which went like this: “Yes I know He’s able to
furnish a table in this cold, hard, and barren wilderness.” I remember growing up hearing him sing that
song many times and I thank God today for parents who believe in a sovereign
God.
Those who do not accept this
vision of a sovereign God can at most hope for some kind of serenity to accept
what they cannot change; however, the believer in the God of the Bible knows
that his/her faith is in a God who can change anything at any time, who will
change all things in the age to come, and who will be with them in the present
in any circumstance. We know the grace
that is sufficient and that gives us strength in our greatest weakness.
2. A corollary of the truth that all comes from God
is that God doesn’t just care about the “big events” of life – he cares about
the mundane things like daily bread. We
are to bring everything to God in prayer.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil.
4:6-7, ESV). Are there things that are
weighing you down and causing you anxiety but which you do not bring to God in
prayer because you think they are insignificant to God? Surely, the Lord’s Prayer should teach us
that nothing is insignificant, and nothing too mundane to bring to the Father. Right after praying for God’s kingdom to come
is a petition for bread. Let us
therefore not think it below God’s notice to bring everything to him in prayer.
3. Another truth that follows is
the reality that God isn’t just about the future. Though it is true that our hope is located
ultimately in the future, the fact is that we are told to trust God for the
here and now, for the present. We are to
pray for daily bread. This not only indicates that we are to pray
daily, but that we are to pray that God meet the present demands upon us with
his present provision. We not only need
future grace, we also need daily grace. Our
Lord isn’t just concerned about how we end, he’s also concerned about how we
get there. God isn’t just waiting for us
at the end of our earthly journey; he is present every step of the way. As Psalm 46:1 put is, “God is our refuge and
strength, a very present help in trouble.”
4. The follower of Christ is in
covenant with God, and God has covenanted not only to save our souls but our
bodies as well. “Our citizenship is in
heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will
transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that
enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:20). “What?
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19,
20). He will not forsake what he came to
redeem. Bread, as much as the
forgiveness of sin, is a covenant mercy.
You see this clearly in passages
like Ps. 136:25. Throughout this Psalm,
God is praised for his steadfast love that endures forever. And the psalmist gives many instances of this,
including the great redemptive events in the history of Israel. But then he ends like this: “Who giveth food
to all flesh: for his mercy endureth forever.”
It is covenant love and mercy that gives us bread.
You see it later in Matthew
6. “Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be
clothed? (For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all
these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto
you” (Mt. 6:31-33). Here is a promise,
given to us by a promise-keeping God.
It’s interesting that often we argue that we need to get our finances up
to a certain point and then we can start really serving God. But here Jesus inverts the argument and tells
us to serve God first and then our finances will be taken care of.
This means that we can appeal to
heaven for bread not only on the basis of our relationship to God as creature
to creator, but also on the basis of our relationship to God as child to
Father. The ground for our prayer for
bread is the blood of Jesus Christ. It
is more than common grace to which we are appealing, it is saving grace. We therefore need fear no reprisal from the Father
for bringing before him our daily needs.
We have a right to an audience with him, not on the basis of our
goodness or merit, but on the basis of Christ’s atonement and his merit. It is not only okay to pray this prayer, it
is right.
However, there are some
objections to this view of God’s provision.
One is from experience: it doesn’t seem that everyone who asks for bread
gets it. There are millions in the world
who go hungry, and surely of these some of them have to be praying for bread
and not getting it. Doesn’t this just
mean that the Lord’s Prayer is just another pie-in-the-sky?
In response to this, I would first
point out that this prayer is more aptly titled “The Disciple’s Prayer.” This is not meant to be put in the mouths of
just anyone. “The sacrifice of the
wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his
delight” (Prov. 15:8). This prayer
belongs properly to those with whom God is in a saving relationship. The fact of the matter is that though God
often does rain upon the just and the unjust, and dispenses common grace to all
men, he does not owe one thing to them, not even bread. Sin and rebellion against God merits only
eternal punishment. The only ones who
have a right to pray for bread are those who are in a saving relationship with
God as Father through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ.
But then someone might come back
and say, “But it seems to me that even many who call themselves Christian go
hungry. What do you say to that?”
To this I would respond that the
Bible recognizes this possibility. For
example, Paul writes to the Romans, quoting from the Psalms, “Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sword?” (Rom. 8:35). Notice
that Paul’s words imply that famine is a possibility for the believer. They cannot separate us from the love of
Christ, not because the believer can
never be hurt by them, but because “in
all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Rom.
8:37).
Here is the bottom line: God will
provide for his people all that they need for their good and his glory. And when we pray for bread, we are not
praying for bread apart from this consideration of God’s name, kingdom, and
will. Sometimes it is for our good and
God’s glory that we endure persecution and homelessness and hunger and
nakedness. In fact, it happened to Paul:
“in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in
fastings often, in cold and nakedness” (2 Cor. 11:27). And yet this was the same Paul who would
write to the Philippians, “But my God shall supply all your need according to
his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
How do you reconcile that? Here is how Paul did it: in speaking of God’s
answer of no to his request that he be delivered of the thorn in the flesh, he
wrote, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly
therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses
for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10). Paul endured physical deprivation at times gladly because at those times God came
in with sufficient grace. Paul didn’t
see physical lack as a sign that God had abandoned him; rather he rejoiced in
those times because it was then that he experienced God’s grace in a fuller
measure.
We must always be reminded that
as this prayer begins with God’s will being done, therefore all our requests
must be submitted to God’s gracious and good will. As our Lord himself prayed, “Not my will, but
thine be done,” even so must we pray. And
this includes the prayer for bread.
In the end, we don’t pray to
inform God, because he already knows our need.
And we don’t pray to manipulate God, because he already loves his
children. We pray because we are his
children, and it is natural and right for us to express our need for God and
our dependence upon him for everything, for the needs of our soul and for the
needs of our body. And it pleases our
Father when we do this, just as it pleases me when my children express their
need for me. So may we go to the Father
in prayer through Jesus Christ, and continue to find mercy and grace to help in
time of need.
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