By Steven Norris
When is the last time that you prayed for daily bread (enough bread to keep you from going hungry for a day)? Most of us do not have to worry about that degree of food scarcity. If we need bread, we go to the pantry. If there is not enough, we go to the store.
When Jesus teaches the disciples to pray for their daily bread, he is issuing a invitation to trust. Praying for “daily bread” no doubt brought to mind the manna that God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness (see Exodus 16). This bread-like substance sustained the Hebrew people for a long time, but it had to be replenished daily. Similarly, Jesus is teaching us to pray for God’s sustaining care.
As we learn to pray for daily bread, here are four things that we are also saying:
There is a connection between the physical and the spiritual. God is not only concerned about our spiritual lives, but about our everyday physical needs as well. We are whole people and needs in one area overlap with needs in another area. Learning to pray for daily bread, may also mean learning to recognize God’s care for our bodies, our minds, our hearts, and our souls.
To pray for “bread” is to distinguish between our wants and our needs. Will Willimon suggests that “most of us perish from too much bread rather than too little, filling the gnawing emptiness within through ceaseless consumption.” When we pray, we would do well to check our hearts and motivations — is this a want or a need? Is it necessary for survival? Is it a luxury? What is my relationship to this item as a result?
To pray for bread daily is to remind us of our dependence on God. Who goes to the grocery store and buys enough food only for today? We go to Sam’s Club or Costco and buy enough cereal for a month or enough toilet paper for 6 months.A more accurate prayer for most of us would likely be “Give us this day our 401k.” Being responsible and thinking about the future can be good, but not if it causes us to place our trust in anything other than God.
Finally, to pray “Give us this day our daily bread” is to pray a simultaneous “Thank you” and “I’m sorry.” It is to acknowledge God’s care and provision in your life. The very fact that we have extra food in our pantries means that we are richer than a huge part of the world’s population. Yet, there are so many around our world living on less per day than what we throw away in spoiled leftovers. What is our responsibility to them?
The fourth-century bishop, St. Basil, taught: The bread that is spoiling in your house belongs to the hungry. The shoes that are mildewing under your bed belong to those who have none. The clothes stored away in your trunk belong to those who are naked. The money that depreciates in your treasury belongs to the poor!
As we pray for our daily bread, let us likewise pray that we may become bread for our brothers and sisters in need.