Our Daily Bread

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray (Luke 11:1), He gave us the template that most call The Lord's Prayer, or The Model Prayer.  The first half is about God, and our relationship with Him:

• He is our Father--we must honor Him
• We should look forward to the Day of His appearing
• His perfect will is greater than our deepest desires and dreams; and
• His will in heaven is the standard to which we all should hold ourselves here on earth.

The second half is about us.  We should not forget the order--Praise before Petition, Reverence before Reward.

Now, look how Jesus begins the second half of the prayer, the one where we petition God for grace and favor.  Before we can intercede for others, we must make sure our own needs are met.  So the focus here today is on the next seven words--the words that hold so much meaning.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Have you ever stopped and meditated on those words?  More and more in my Christian walk, I have begun to ruminate on this phrase, and it is so satisfying.  Come with me and share my passion for His provision.

First, let's break the sentence down into component parts--Subject, Verb, Indirect Object, Object.  We don't teach English this way any more, but when I was in school, we had to diagram sentences.  We would take out adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases, and pare it down to the basic message.  In this case, we would identify the component parts of the sentence:

• Subject:                  (You)
• Verb:                      Give
• Indirect Object:       Us 
• descriptor           this day
• Direct Object          Bread
• descriptor           our
• descriptor           daily

Stay with me here, this gets better!

Subject

To whom is our prayer addressed?  Our Father.  He is the One to whom we pray.  He is the one Source of our sustenance.  James 1:17 says, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."  He doesn't flicker or fade.  He is the I AM, and His hand never fails.

Last week I referenced a passage in Numbers chapter 11 where God took some of the Spirit that He had given Moses and He put it on fifty elders of Israel, and they began to prophesy.  The back-story to that event was that the people of Israel had gotten tired of Manna.  They begged Moses for meat.  Moses went to God, and God reacted rather strongly--he said, if they want meat, I'll give them so much meat they will be sick of it.  "You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month--until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it--because you have rejected the Lord." (Numbers 11:19-20).  Stay with me here, this is the point I am making.  Moses said, "Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!  Would they have enough if (all the) flocks and herds were slaughtered for them?  Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?" (Numbers 11:21-22) God's answer was telling.  "Is the Lord's arm too short?"

This is the reason Paul wrote in Philippians 4:19, "My God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."  How it must break His heart when we look to others to meet our needs!  Singer/songwriter Chris Tomlin wrote a song called "Give us Clean Hands", and the chorus goes:

So give us clean hands and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh give us clean hands and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another

Let us not look to government, or to society, or to another person, or even to ourselves to meet our needs.  Let us go to God, who is the giver of every good and perfect gift.

Verb
What are we asking God to do? To give.  What does he ask in return? That we give--give Him glory, give of what we have to help others, give up our lives so that he can be poured out in us and through us.  John 15:7 says, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you."  But Luke 6:38 says, "Give and it shall be given to you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

This concept is counter-intuitive.  The more we give, the more God will give to us.  Our needs will be met as we meet the needs of others.  In the book of Acts, when the early church was growing by leaps and bounds, they were so attuned to each others' needs that they didn't claim anything as their own, but shared everything they had.  "There were no needy persons among them.  For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need."(Acts 4:33-34).  This was the basis of the idea of Socialism, but the concept breaks down if 1) the giving is forced (called taxation), and 2) the receiver is the government (that breeds corruption).  It worked in the church in Acts because God blessed those who gave with abundance, and they all met the needs of one another gladly.

Isaiah 55:-31 is full of promise.  Here it is in the New Living Translation:

Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink--even if you have no money!  Come, take your choice of wine or milk--it's all free!  Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?  Why pay for food that does you no good?  Listen to me, and you will eat what is good.  You will enjoy the finest food.  Come to me with your ears wide open.  Listen and you will find life.  I will make an everlasting covenant with you.  I will give you all the unfailing love I promised David.

Now, you may think that the prophet was speaking in the spiritual sense--much the same way that Jesus meant when he had spoken to the Woman at the Well.  When the disciples came back to him with food to eat, he said, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." (John 4:32).  And in a sense, you are right.  But the Bible also says, "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." (Psalm 37:25).

God is glad to meet our needs, as well.  (See "Subject" above)

Direct Object
Skipping ahead a bit, what is it that we are asking God to give? Bread is written, but it could apply to every need we could possibly have:

A. Physical
     1.  Food
     2.  Clothing
     3.  Housing
     4.  Clean air/water
B.  Spiritual
     1.  Salvation
     2.  Grace/Mercy
     3.  Peace
C.  Mental/Emotional
     1.  Clarity of thought
     2.  Wisdom
     3.  Joy
     4.  Peace
     5.  Love
D.  Financial
E.  Social
F.  Sexual

What does the Bible say?  "And my God will supply every need of yours, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."  Period.  End of sentence.  And do we need to go to any other to meet that need? See "Subject" above.

Descriptor(s)
"This day" and "Our Daily" speak of the immediacy of our request.  We need to receive God's blessing in His time, but for the basic necessities of life, there is a sense of urgency.  God, give us what we need, and we need it now!

But I also think that it means we are to come to him frequently.  When God sent the Manna to the children of Israel, he told them not to take more than they needed, because there would be more there tomorrow.  This was a test of their faith.  When some people took more than they needed, it spoiled--it did them no good, and they had to throw it out.

God's provision is like a Costco or a Sam's Club store.  There is plenty there.  God wants us to take our pick of whatever we need.  "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19).  But instead of encouraging us to stock up for the winter, God tells us to only take enough for today.  That way, we will come to him to refill our cup more often.  It's like Walmart at Christmas:  Walmart is the world's biggest retailer.  They have everything you need all in one place.  But at Christmas they limit the amount of sales items you can buy.  Now we know that they do it so that more people can enjoy the items at the sale prices, but we know God will never run out.  There is plenty for all.  But when we stand in line with other believers, we are encouraged; when we take only what we need for the day, we know we can come back to Him tomorrow.

Indirect Object
To whom is the bread directed? We know it is from God, given graciously to all who ask.  But the recipient is us.  Everything God does, he does for us.  If you were the only person on earth who needed salvation, Jesus Christ would still have come to die for your sins.  He loves you that much.

When I worked as a camp counselor many years ago, I would give a devotional to different groups that would ask me to speak.  I would show them the American Sign Language signs for "I love Jesus".  If you don't know, "I" is formed by holding your small finger up with the rest of the fingers down or clenched in a fist, and held in front of your heart.  "Love" is formed by crossing both arms over your heart.  The word "Jesus" is formed by holding your hands apart, palms facing each other, then touching each palm with the middle finger of the other hand.  I explained how this portrayed the nails that held him to the cross for us.  Then I'd turn it around--I would sign as I went: Jesus, the person who is known by the nail scars in his hands, Loves (holds close, hugs, draws to his heart), Me (little and insignificant as the pinky finger).

That is who gets the bread given by God when we pray.  Us.  We get it.  It is ours to take.  It is ours to share.  Jesus may have had this in mind when he instituted Communion, or the Lord's Supper.  We share the elements, reminding us of his body that was broken for us, and his blood that was shed for us.  But we take it unto ourselves.  We personalize it.  It was for us that He died.

Think about this next time you pray for your daily bread.