Thought for the Day – Give Us Today Our Daily Bread

Stuart Holloway shares today’s Thought for the Day which is the fourth in his series on the Lord’s Prayer – ‘Give us today our daily bread’.

Hi there, Stuart here again with another thought for the day thinking through the Lord’s Prayer and the next phrase, give us today our daily bread.

Now this might seem like a strange thing to be told to pray. Firstly, I reckon that most of us don’t pray this every day, yet we still have food in the fridge and clothes on our backs. Secondly, Jesus, in the very same chapter, Matthew Ch 6, goes on to tell the people he’s speaking to, not to worry, because our father in heaven knows what we need before we even ask him!

So why pray it?

Well, there are two main important reasons.

Firstly, it again helps us to cultivate the relationship we have with God. It puts us in our place as creation and God in his place of creator. The relationship that has been designed here is one of provider/receiver. The whole point of our being created is so that God can give good things to us. And the book I’ve been reading with the children sums it up nicely saying “God is a good father who loves to take care of his children. He is happy when we ask him to provide what we need”. Do you see?  God is happy when we are asking him to provide for us, because he loves to be our father. That’s why he made us as subordinate beings, so that he could lavish love on us and display his glory by providing for and caring for a lesser being. And he wants us to ask daily because he wants us to keep coming back. We’re sinful and would wonder from him and forget his love if we did not cultivate this habit. Fathers love to spend time with their children every day and as children, we should long to do that, too!

Secondly, it’s good to remember also that Jesus calls himself the bread of life. It’s no coincidence that Jesus calls himself that, and commands his followers to ask for daily bread. Beyond mere physical necessities, Jesus knows that what we need most is him, daily. So when we ask for daily bread, we should be mindful that we need Jesus, even more so than actual bread and desirous that God would also be giving us HIM in that request.

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