Give Us Each Day our Daily Bread

Luke 11:1-4

So far in what we know as the LORD’S prayer the focus has been on honoring the name of God and praying that His sovereign rule would reign. Now we see the requests that we are to bring before the Lord.

Let us read Luke 11:1-4 as we begin our study tonight.

Several suggestions have been made to describe what is meant by the bread.

1 Some have suggested that the bread is the Word of God. What a wonderful thought. We do need the Word of God daily. I do not think the Word of God is what Jesus meant in this prayer

2 Others have suggested that the bread represents the bread of the Lord’s Supper so they try to tie the Lord’s Supper to the Lord’s prayer. I am not sure that is what Jesus intended here either.

So what is meant by daily bread?

That God would provide our daily physical needs. When you think of bread you think of the basic fulfillment of hunger. Bread is essentially the staple to any meal. Especially as we look in Scripture

In Exodus 16 God provided quail and bread.

We find the words of Jesus in Matthew 4:4 that man is not to live by bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God

Luke 9:16 we find that Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish

Hebrews 9:4 - a jar of manna kept in the tabernacle to remember how God provided their basic needs

The prayer: give us our daily bread is literally Lord, please provide our basic needs

What are we to learn in regards to praying for our basic physical needs

1 The Father Cares about Our Basic Needs

We see the Father’s care for our basic needs outlined by Jesus in Matthew 6. Jesus instructed that the Father knows our needs, that he provides for the birds of the air and that He cares to provide for our needs as well.

God knows what we need and that is why we pray for the daily provision that He knows we need

Solomon wrote in Proverbs 30:8

Proverbs 30:8 ESV

8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,

Notice the request. Do not make me rich or poor, but please just provide what I need. Solomon explained in verse 9 why we should request such Proverbs 30:9

Proverbs 30:9 ESV

9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

2 The Father Provides so that We May Share with One Another

It is interesting as we look at this request, Jesus did not say - pray God give me each day my daily bread, but He said “us”

The intention is that we are to be as concerned at the basic needs of others

The Father does not give us our daily needs to just store it, but to sustain us and for us to use to sustain others

This is a picture of who we are to be as the church

Acts 2:42–45 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

They were providing for the needs of others. We have seen this first hand within our body of providing for the needs of others.

We see a great example of this in a parable that Jesus shared in Luke 10:29-37 the good samaritan. This parable teaches several things. One is that we are to cross cultural barriers, as a Samaritan helps a Jew which was a big no no in their culture. We also see this Samaritan taking the Jew upon himself, bandaging his wounds, taking him to a motel, giving of his own money so that the Jew could be taken care of. What an example for us not to just look to the needs of our friends or those in which we are comfortable.

What prevents us from being cheerful givers? Is it this fear of not having what we need? Do we think that God would not provide for His children who are providing for others?

John Piper preached a powerful sermon years ago on our need to live for the glory of God and in it he shared this article he had read from readers digest. It was a couple who had retired early and moved to south Florida. They were asked what they were now going to do with their time since their retirement. Their answer? Collect seashells. Seashells. Too often whether it is our time or the money in which we have been blessed with we think only of ourselves, instead we are to be thinking about how we can use the resources God has given us for the glory of God

Now with all this in mind we must think on a few things:

The fact that God provides for our daily needs does not mean we should have no work ethic or initiative. 1 Thess 4:11 Paul instructed them to work with their own hands.

When we pray for our daily needs, we are not just praying for bread, again this is a model we are to pray. There may be other essential needs in your life or in the lives of others. It could be illness. The point is to pray for essential physical needs.

Remember God cares for us. God is the one who can provide for our essentials.

Let us pray together.