Give us this day our daily bread
In the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, we have prayed for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives – that God’s Word be preached purely and lived rightly, that God’s kingdom come through Word and Sacrament, and that God’s will be done and the devil’s will be thwarted. We call these spiritual blessings because they have to do with the forgiveness of sins, the strengthening of faith, and the delivering of God’s salvation to us.
But God is not only concerned about our soul. He is also concerned with our body. He teaches us to first pray for our soul – which is eternal, and then to pray for our body – which is temporal. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther answers what asking for daily bread means:
God surely gives daily bread without our asking, even to all the wicked, but we pray in this petition that he would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.
Both Christians and non-Christians receive physical blessings from God. Jesus teaches, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). The Christian’s lawn receives rain and so does his anti-Christian neighbor. The believing farmer is blessed with good weather and so is the unbelieving farmer.
Jesus teaches us, “Seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). “These things” are our daily bread – food, clothing, shelter, income, health and the necessities of life. Jesus teaches that it’s good for us to pray for these things. But only after we have first prayed for God’s things – his name, his kingdom and his will.
Don’t let earthly possessions become your obsession. Don’t be anxious about them. Don’t worry about them. Jesus teaches, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:25-26).
So don’t worry. Trust your heavenly Father to take care of you. He will!
I want you to consider the Fourth Petition as the antidote to worry.
Scripture teaches that God supplies every physical need for all people. God doesn’t wait to be asked before he supplies our needs. Jesus teaches, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8).
That means that the Fourth Petition is not a “give me” prayer. It is rather a “thank you” prayer. Jesus doesn’t need to teach us to pray for our daily needs. We do that naturally. “God surely gives daily bread without our asking.”
Rather, we are praying in this petition, “that we would realize this and to receive daily bread with thanksgiving.”
Martin Luther asks “what is meant by daily bread?”
Daily bread includes everything that we need for our bodily welfare, such as food and drink, clothing and shoes, house and home, land and cattle, money and goods, a godly spouse, godly children, godly workers, godly and faithful leaders, good government, good weather, peace and order, health, a good name, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
Pastor Goetzinger writes about the symbol he created for the Fourth Petition:
Because God is our good and gracious father he will provide for us the things we need to live our lives. He will provide us with clothing and food as well as house and home. Sometimes we can confuse needs and wants or even become lazy and expect that he will provide all of our wants on a silver platter. However, he often graciously provides these things through our own vocations.
This seal features a head of wheat sprouting from the ground. Sometimes wheat is called the kernel of life as it can provide the basic sustenance needed to live. Though God certainly promises to provide us with food he also promises to provide us with all things needed to sustain and foster life.
Bread is eaten by people all over the world. It is a mainstay of many people’s diets. Bread is also a biblical way of describing how God sustains life on earth (Isaiah 55:2). Luther explains this in his Large Catechism:
Here, now, we consider the poor breadbasket, the necessaries of our body and of the temporal life. It is a brief and simple word, but it has a very wide scope. For when you mention and pray for daily bread, you pray for everything that is necessary in order to have and enjoy daily bread and, on the other hand, against everything which interferes with it. Therefore you must open wide and extend your thoughts not only to the oven or the flour-bin but to the distant field and the entire land, which bears and brings to us daily bread and every sort of sustenance. For if God did not cause it to grow, and bless and preserve it in the field, we could never take bread from the oven or have any to set upon the table. (Large Catechism, Part III, The Lord’s Prayer, par. 72)
Give us “this day” our “daily” bread. Notice the emphasis Jesus puts on bread for this day. Not bread in the pantry or the freezer. Not bread for next month or next year or the next ten years. Bread for today – this day.
Like the manna in the wilderness.
Enough for each day.
Jesus teaches us to trust in him, rely on him, find our security in him. Oh, it will be wise for us to invest in the stock market and our 401k. It is good for us to do some wise financial planning and exercise good judgment. But it is even better for us to have confidence in God. “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).
With this petition, Jesus teaches us to pray for greater confidence in our loving, heavenly Father. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:32)? If the Father gave you the greatest spiritual gift of his Son, don’t you think he’s going to take care of your lesser physical gifts, too?
The Father has provided you with the spiritual blessings to get you to eternity. He will surely provide you with the physical blessings here in time – one day at a time.
“Give us this day our daily bread.” It may seem like a simple petition, or even an unnecessary one. But really, there’s a lot here involved in this petition.
Thanksgiving.
Trust.
Confidence.
The antidote to worry.
Daily bread to overcome our obsession with possessions. Recognizing everything that goes into daily bread. Praying for everyone from the factory worker who makes the tractors, to the farmer who uses the tractors, to the truck driver who delivers the food, to the baker, stocker and clerk in the store, to the police officer, military soldiers and government officials who provide peace … and so many more. Giving thanks to God that he involves so many people – both the righteous and the wicked to provide daily bread to us and our neighbors. Giving thanks to God that he uses us in this process to feed our family, our neighbor and the needy.
Yes, there are certainly a lot of ingredients baked into this daily loaf of bread!
Michael Zarling
For the first 8 years of my ministry, I served at Faith Lutheran Church, an exploratory congregation in Radcliff, KY. I presently serve at Epiphany Lutheran Church and Wisconsin Lutheran School (WLS) in Racine, WI. I am also very involved with our youth as the WLS head soccer coach and the head counselor for WELS Training Camp, a youth camp for 3rd – 9th graders. I have been married to Shelley for 20 years. Together we have 4 beautiful daughters – Abigail, Miriam, Lydia and Gabrielle. We also have 2 dogs – Messi and Mia – named after Lionel Messi and Mia Hamm (the Zarling family really likes soccer!)
