Our Daily Bread

Matthew 6:11, John 6

“Give us this day our daily bread”.

What does your daily bread consist of? Usually we think in terms of physical need, bread made with flour. I wonder if this is what Jesus was referring to as He taught the disciples to pray. Or, might it have had a spiritual connotation? After all He called Himself “The Bread of Life” (John 6:35).

John records Jesus’ concern about bread. Jesus reminded the crowd that “Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died”. They had prayed for bread and God had supplied it, daily. Is this the daily bread Jesus is teaching us to pray for? He went on to explain “Here is the bread that comes down from heaven which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven!” (John 6:49-51).

Bread, from time immemorial, has been necessary for man to survive, physically. Throughout the Bible bread is a theme, demonstrating how much God continually cared for the people He created. He sent manna to the Israelites wandering in the desert. He miraculously provided bread for His prophet Elijah twice, once by ravens (1 Kings 17:6) and the second time God kept the widow’s jar of flour full for a lengthy period of time (1 Kings 17:15-16), in order to keep this man of God alive.

Jesus was tempted by Satan to think in terms of fulfilling his physical hunger with bread, but Jesus retorted “Man does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4). He quoted from the Torah to remind the children of God “…but “. But has significant meaning for such a small word. They were reminded that their lives depended ”on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

So, just as bread or manna is necessary to keep us alive physically, so is the bread sent down from heaven in the person of God’s Son, crucial to our spiritual life and vitality. The allegory Jesus used might have turned some folks off, because he referred to the bread as His flesh. “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). “Just as one eats and drinks in order to have physical life, so it is necessary to appropriate Christ in order to have eternal life!” (Ryrie).

Reflection:

We cannot say there is only one meaning to this part of Jesus’ prayer; it does cause us to think in both physical and spiritual terms. Questions remain: Are we taking advantage of the privilege we have of feeding on God’s Word daily? Does His Word thrill our very innermost being, without which we could not truly “live”? Is Scripture causing you to grow in your faith and in your loving relationship with God the Father? Are we feasting on the “living bread” so that we “will live forever” (John 6:51)?

by Marilyn Daniels (MarilynDaniels.net)