Daily bread
“Give us today our daily bread.” We say those words every Sunday, some of us twice. Some of us may even use them in our own prayers during the week. They are magnificent words, and we sense the rightness of praying them, expressing as they do our dependence – every day – on our loving Father just to get us through that day. And since it is God’s own Son who has taught us to pray those words to his Father, we are on solid ground when we utter them. But what are we asking for when we say those words?
There is one great moment in the story of the Bible when God literally did give his people their daily bread. It was enough for that day, and no more, and he did the same day after day after day (except for the Sabbath when he provided enough for two days). That was when the people of Israel were in the wilderness, on their way to the land God had promised. There, every morning, lying on the ground for them to pick up, was manna. It was enough to get them through that day, and then they had to trust him for tomorrow.
God gives us grace to face what we need to face, one day at a time. Yet we worry and fret, wondering, “But what if such-and-such…?” And he replies, “If and when I call you to face such-and-such, I’ll give you grace for that too. In the meantime, here’s the grace you need for now.” This way we learn to trust God to provide what we need, one day at a time. That’s what we’re asking for – and God gives us – when we ask for daily bread.