"Lord, give us this day our daily bread..." isn't a prayer we pray in America because we already have today's bread, and tomorrow's as well. In American churches today, we have luxury beyond any civilization's experience, and we have reserves that are astounding. Our bank accounts are typically fat enough that we need not cry out to God to help us pay our debts. Our cupboards are full. Instead of asking God for our "daily bread," we open the breadbox. We open the fridge and fill our eyes with delicacies that would delight the heart of any king. How can we, with such abundance, feel a need to cry out to our God to give us our daily bread?We can't.
But there is something we can do to offset this abundance. There is something we can do to enrich our lives beyond measure, and give us back that feeling of need for God in His daily provisions. We can come to the place in life where we realize the following:
(1) God owns all I am and all I have
(2) God has made me a steward of all in my possession
(3) God has placed me in a position to help others
(4) God will replace what I give out so that I can give out more
(5) God expects me to be totally dependent on Him at all times for all things.
If we can truly realize these important things in our lives, truly experience them, truly know them, then we will always pray for our daily bread, for we will have come to realize that the "bread" we seek is not a measure of meal to fill a stomach, but is a continual feeding by the good Lord of our every need, including the need to serve God.Thus, God gives us the bread of suffering, the bread of service, the bread of pain, the bread of sacrifice, the bread of healing, the bread of forgiveness, the bread of deliverance, the bread of salvation, the bread of wisdom, and a multiplicity of feedings that can never fill us, for as we receive, we give. We share our "bread" with others and with God Himself. We dine in His presence. We dine at His table. We are partakers at the table of God, and are we not compelled to share this feast with others? Shall we suffer and not bless others by the grace we have fed upon from God? Shall we be delivered from evil and not bestow upon others the food that strengthened us from His Word? Shall we be wise from above, and not share that food with others who hunger to know God and to know His ways?
Give us this day our daily bread is but the first part of a prayer we ought to pray.
The second part of that prayer ought to be, "in order that we might feed others as well as ourselves."
Copyright Voyle A. Glover 2000
