One thing that happens as we begin to pray is that we become intensely aware of our neediness. None of us are an island, and none of us can make it without the help of others. Still, the reality is that there are some needs that are beyond the help of all others…unless they’re God, the Creator. He is our being or reality, and only in Him can we find the answer to the deep needs of the soul. Jesus tells us to pray each day for these needs, for those things which sustain our living, those things we need simply to survive. Bread is a symbol of these needs. Without these things our bodies, minds, and spirits wither, or shrivel up.
If you would like to know more of Jesus' teaching about praying for our daily bread, check out the new podcast on "Morning Mercies." This is a podcast dedicated to the deepening of trust with God, our maker, through a relationship with Jesus Christ. He has become our Master, our teacher, and so we follow Him with our lives, be they what they are. They are brief, and follow the simple format of scripture, meditation, and prayer.
Morning Mercies are posted several times a week on all major podcast platforms, and are presented by Michael Mullen.
“Give us each day our daily bread.”
One thing that happens as we begin to pray is that we become intensely aware of our neediness. None of us are an island, and none of us can make it without the help of others. Still, the reality is that there are some needs that are beyond the help of all others…unless they’re God, the Creator. He is our being or reality, and only in Him can we find the answer to the deep needs of the soul.
Jesus tells us to pray each day for these needs, for those things which sustain our living, those things we need simply to survive. Bread is a symbol of these needs. Without these things our bodies, minds, and spirits wither, or shrivel up. What kind of things are we talking about?
Certainly food is one of them. We need to eat daily, and without food we starve. Also we need water, shelter, clothing, and work to do. These are the most immediate needs that a person has. Beyond this, we have deep needs that we may overlook, but are still needed daily, and without them our lives are diminished. These are more interior in nature, yet they are as or even more important than our physical needs. We need love, peace, and hope for the future. To not have these things is to live in isolation, fear, and despair. Thats a fore taste of what hell would be like. They are absolutely as essential as the food on our plates. We must have them.
Jesus was in the wilderness being led there by the Holy Spirit to be tempted. At one point Jesus sees the stones upon the ground and is tempted to turn them into loaves of bread. To this temptation he speaks the scripture, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” We need God’s Word in our lives to feed our souls like we need food in our bellies. Jesus called himself the “bread of life,” and is saying that we need to partake of Him, through His Word and prayer, every day to sustain us in our living. To do without Him is to starve ourselves at a deep level, literally.
We need to notice here that the form of this request that need is personal, focussed on the individual and his need. Later, Paul will tell the church to pray for those governments over us- that’s a collective need. In Matthew 5 Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies. That is to pray for another person. In James 5 we are told to pray for the church, to pray for one another. But in the Lord’s prayer, our petition today that Jesus taught us have moved to the every day, personal level. They are about my needs, and my flourishing. They are things we need constantly. There are three of these requests that Jesus gives to us, and he tells us to be daily in prayer about them. We will look at the last two requests of those things we need next week, but today we are told to pray for those daily subsistence needs we can’t live without, like bread, like His Word.
Because of this Jesus tells us to pray daily for these things and don’t stop praying for them. By this he reminds us that he is the one who gives us life, he is the one who is our source. What is interesting is that the Greek word for daily used her is a rare word to translate. It is made of two Greek words, and is used only two times in the New Testament both in the context of this prayer. Though the word has an implied meaning of daily, it also has an implicit meaning of that which is necessary on a daily basis. But necessary for what? Necessary for life, but even more so, necessary for a life that glorifies God.
Sometimes we take for granted those things of this world that God gives us by his providence, that is unless we don’t have them. Some of us rarely pray over meals, or it has become mere habit, empty of the thanksgiving that should fill it. When we have what we need, we sometimes forget to pray for what we have received. That is unfortunate, because to pray for our needs opens up to a realization of the constant love of God that we experience. His love is every moment and every day, but too often we are not conscious of this. It is simply not in our thoughts. Also, by praying for our daily needs we make ourselves humble, where God can teach us that we are not enough in this life, but with Him we have all we need.
Make it a daily practice to pray to Him who is your source, your source of life, that you might receive what you need for today. Prayer is more than this, but prayer most naturally starts here for humans.
So let us pray.