This week we’ll look at verse 11, the third line of the Lord’s prayer as described by Matthew.
Matthew 6:11 reads: Give us today our daily bread.
At first glance this might seem to be a very simple request – namely for God to provide you with enough food to get you through the day – but let’s look at it a little more closely, shall we?
If, like me, you live in a wealthy Western nation where there is always food available, this particular request for daily bread is probably one that you make out of habit or rote rather than out of genuine need.
I myself have been unemployed at various times in my life, but I’ve never once been in a situation in which I genuinely didn’t know where my next meal would be coming from. Your life experience might be similar to mine or it might be very different, depending on your own circumstances. Perhaps there isn’t always much food where you live, or perhaps the area where you live is a dangerous place to be a Christian.
Coming to God in prayer to ask for my next meal, my daily bread, when I didn’t know if I could provide it by myself, is not something I’ve ever had to do.
Does that mean I can skip this particular aspect of Jesus’ model prayer? Is it a request that only applies in certain circumstances and therefore certainly doesn’t apply to me?
I don’t think so. Let me give three reasons why.
First
Even if your life circumstances mean that you’ve never been short of food, that is something which could change. The war in Ukraine, which is still going on as I type these words, has caused food prices to rise around the world, since Ukraine both produces and exports a very significant proportion of the world’s food supply.
Even if you are comfortably able to acquire food today, we have no way of knowing what the situation will be like next year or the year after. The violence in the area could get worse, other wars could start, the balance of power in the world could suddenly shift such that the West is no longer the centre of power and affluence.
It’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen. That’s the first reason why it’s essential for all of us, no matter how well off we might be, to remember this basic request to God: please make sure I have access to enough food each day.
Second
Even if you are sufficiently safe and comfortable that you will never be at risk of going hungry even in the worst case scenarios of international geopolitics, this request for daily food should still be a central pillar of your everday prayers.
Why?
To keep you humble. To remind you that you are indeed very, very blessed to be in such a position. To remind you everything you have – all of the infrastructure and the earning potential and the security that enables you to live the way you do – ultimately came from God.
There’s an episode of The Simpsons in which Bart is asked to say grace for a meal, and his prayer is “Dear God, we paid for all this ourselves, so thanks for nothing“. While that’s just a comedy show trying to make a joke based on a child’s perception of life, it does illustrate the attitude that many people with comfortable lifestyles can have.
Let’s be honest – it’s the attitude that’s so easy for you to have, if you are in that position. It is so, so easy for you to think that all of the things you have, from the simple daily provisions to the luxury items you don’t really need, came from your own efforts or your own resources.
While you may have worked very hard and made many sacrifices to get to where you are in life, you must always remember that ultimately all of it came from God. He gave you the opportunities and the abilities that enabled you to get there.
A prayer for daily bread is not usually a prayer that God will miraculously make food appear on your table or in your fridge. It’s much more likely that he’ll work in other ways to bring about circumstances that will enable you to either earn your crust or receive help from others when you are unable to do that.
And that brings us nicely on to the third reason we should always make this prayer request…..
Third
Even if you are sufficiently safe and comfortable that you don’t need to worry about where your next meal is coming from, the same is not true for many, many millions of individuals and families around the world.
Many of those individuals and families will be Christians and many of them might offer this prayer, or one like it, every day.
Now here’s a question that often troubles people, particularly sceptics or those who are struggling with their faith: why does God allow some people to go without their daily needs? If there are people in the developing world who pray each day for their daily bread, why don’t they receive it? Why is there so much hunger and even starvation in the world? Why does it seem like God isn’t doing anything to answer these prayers?
Here’s one way of looking at it: God already has done something that will enable these people to have enough to eat. He’s given people living in wealthy countries more than we could ever possibly need, and asked us to share it with those who don’t have enough.
If people are starving in this world, it’s not because there isn’t enough food. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations: The world average dietary energy supply (DES), measured as calories per capita per day, has been increasing steadily to 2,978 kcal per person per day in 2021, up 9 percent compared with 2010.
God has provided us with enough food for everyone – we just haven’t shared it around. Now doubtless there are many, many factors that contribute to this inequity, some of which can be laid at the feet of the rich and comfortable Western nations while others may be related to violence or political instability within the developing world, which disrupt supply chains.
Nevertheless, when you or I say to God “give us our daily bread“, should we not perhaps consider that we have a part to play in making sure that prayer is answered when it’s offered by people who don’t have enough food?
When starving people pray for food, should we expect God to miraculously make it appear in front of them? Or should we expect God to do what he often did in the Biblical narratives, namely to work through faithful human beings to bring about his purpose?
How much food do you eat? How big is the gap between the calories and nutrients you need to survive, and those you actually ingest?
How much of the food that you buy gets thrown away, perhaps because you didn’t want it any more or you forgot about it and it went out of date?
Do you give any thought to the ethical practices of the food manufacturers you buy from? Do you, for example, favour manufacturers who give a fair deal to farmers or producers, particularly in the developing world, or do you just buy whatever is cheapest and most convenient?
As we’ve seen before, what may seem like a simple request to God – “give us our daily bread” – may be so much more than that. It includes (or it should include) a commitment on our part to change our lives if necessary to do what we can to make sure this prayer is answered for others.
A few verses later in Matthew 6 we will see Jesus’ teaching that if we don’t forgive others, we can’t expect God to forgive us. By the same principle, if we don’t do what we can to ensure others are fed, why should we expect God to provide for us?
Nihilist to Christian 