Give Us Today Our Daily Bread ~ Matthew 6:5-13

March 22, 2015 ~ New City Church of Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson
Intro: In Raymond Carvers short story, A Small, Good Thing, You probably need to eat something, the
baker said. I hope youll eat some of my rolls. You have to eat and keep going. Eating is a small good
thing in a time like this, he said. He served them cinnamon rolls just out of the oven, the icing still runny. He
put butter on the table and knives to spread the butter. Then the baker sat down at the table with them. He
waited. He waited until they each took a roll from the platter and began to eat. Its good to eat something, he
said, watching them. Theres more. Eat up. Eat all you want. Theres all the rolls in the world in here.1
I love that scene, not only b/c Im from a long line of bakers, but because it shows us a very human moment
in the context of breadfood. Bread is the stuff of every day life. We need food to exist. Without we perish,
and with it we can flourish. Its presence brings great joy in moments of celebration, and its presence can
bring great comfort in moments of sorrow. Eating is a small, good thing.
Weve been studying the prayer of JesusThe Lords Prayerand have been learning a lot about ourselves
and the God that Jesus teaches us to call, Our heavenly Father. We have noted that when we believe in
Jesus, his God becomes our Godand we come to know the our loving Fatherand we can pray about all
kinds of things. Jesus also teaches us that there are some things that should be a priority in prayer.
And one of those priorities Jesus teaches us to ask for is our daily bread.
Lets admit it: to pray for daily bread seems sounspiritual. But as well discover togetherwhether you are
new to Christianity, or trying to find your way back, or have been a follower of Christ for yearsis that the act
of praying for our daily bread is deeply spiritual.
In fact, as well see togetherto follow Jesus in praying this request is a deeply spiritual, revolutionary act.
I.

Is it really necessary to pray for daily bread?

1. Objection: Is this really necessary? Come on Jesus, of all the things we can and maybe should be
praying for, to ask for our daily bread seems ratherunspiritual. Moreover, I got this. I can take care of
my daily bread. Im not quite sure, Jesus, why this should be a priority in my prayers.
Seems legitimate obj, especially in our context. We are wealthy. Not many of us went hungry this last
week or missed a meal. Surely we got this covered.
Publisher Don Brothy, I dont pray any more. Ive given it up for Lent. Also for Advent and
PentecostHow can I maintain, without lying, that God has a hand in this meal? 2
2. Answer: Jesus: You need to get in touch with the fact that everything in your life is a gifteven your
wealth & your intellect which gives you the power to secure your daily bread.
(1) Deut. 8:11ff, Take care lest you forget the LORD your God lest, when you have eaten and are full
and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your
silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you
forget the LORD your God. Beware lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my
hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives
you power to get wealth.
Moses warns about (1) the pride of self-sufficiency, and (2) the tendency to forget.
(2) Jesus knew what Moses knew: wealth gives us the illusion of self-sufficiency.

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 Mt. 19:22, And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly, I say to you, only with great difficulty will a rich
man enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
Mt. 6:24, No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he
will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
3. Is it really necessary to pray for daily bread? Yes, it is necessary especially for those of us living in
the midst of affluence.
(1) When we lived in Peru, I met a number of people who prayed this prayer in a different way than I
did. We used the same words, but for so many it was a prayer of dependence. Now we live in
Canada, were surrounded by affluence and affluent people, so when we prays this prayer, its
almost just empty words because we dont sense our desperate dependency upon God. Rather we
sense our self-sufficiency. Many simply never think to ask God for daily bread.
(2) Prov. 30:8 (NIV), give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise,
I may have too much and disown you and say, Who is the Lord? Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.
To follow Jesus in praying this request is a revolutionary act against our self-sufficient
tendencies. We are intentionally remembering the Lord our God lest in the abundance of wealth we
deceive ourselves into thinking that our daily existence is possible without him.
II. What are we really saying when we pray for daily bread?
1. We are saying, We are dependent upon You.
Prayerlessness is our declaration of independence from God. ~ Anonymous

When affluent people like us follow Jesus in praying this request, it is a revolutionary act because we
push back against the lie that we are not dependent upon God.

When we pause in the morning to pray Father, give us our daily bread, we are acknowledging that
without the gifts he has bestowed upon us, we wouldnt have a job, we wouldnt have debit and credit
cards, we wouldnt have banks and restaurants, we wouldnt live in close proximity to a multiple
grocery stores. Without his blessing, the earth wouldnt yield food for us.
2. We are saying Thank You in advance.
(1) J. Smed, Thanksgiving is an antidote to greed and envy. It is a speed bump on our restless road of
acquisition. When we give thanks we take our eyes off what we do not have. God grows larger in
our faith.
Smeds work at Insight a drug & alcohol recovery program and the grat-list (short for gratitude).
Gradual transformation in many from morbid self-centredness to gratitude for daily blessings and
gratefulness for life.
(2) Rom. 1:21, For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him
(3) When pray this prayer, and when we pause before we eat to thank God for food, we are
acknowledging our Creator as being our loving heavenly Father who delights in giving to us good
gifts. We are cultivating gratefulness.

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 I try to tell my wife, Thank you for the food she prepares for our family at every family meal, and I
try to cultivate gratefulness in my kids by encouraging them to thank their mother.
And with God, we have so much to be grateful for, even with food. The way it tastes, the way it
nourishes us, the way it brings joy and comfort, the way in which it gives continual evidence of our
Fathers kind-ness and goodness to us.
To follow Jesus in praying this request is a revolutionary act of honouring our heavenly Father
by giving thanks to him.
III. What is Jesus really teaching us by our need for daily bread?
In the intro to our study, I said praying for our daily bread seems unspiritual. And as weve discovered so far, it
is actually a deeply spiritual act. God cares for our physical needs, and connecting our physical needs to Gods
provision helps us to see them in a spiritual light because we are dependent upon God for life itself.
Key Question: Could it be that the very reason you have a sense of physical hunger is so that you can
learn something vital about spiritual hunger?
1. John 6:26-27, 33-35, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but
because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to
eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For the bread of God is he who comes down from
heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to him, Sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to
them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall
never thirst.
What Jesus does is he takes the metaphor of hunger and bread and uses it to teach a profound spiritual
truth about himself: I am the True Bread of Life that you hunger for. And nothing can fill that
hungerthat deep, restless, unrelenting hungerexcept Me.
2. CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires
exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is
such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire
which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for
another world.
3. Simone Weil, Waiting for God, The danger is not lest the soul should doubt whether there is any bread, but
lest, by a lie, it should persuade itself that it is not hungry.
Friend, you need Jesus like your body needs bread: daily! Dont persuade yourself that you are not
hungry. Instead, taste and see that the Lord is good.
To follow Jesus in praying this request is a revolutionary act in which we say, We hungry, Lord,
and only you can give us the True Bread of Life. It is a confession that we need Jesus. We need
the bread that he offers.
Benediction: NCC, may you be a people who ask for your daily bread, and who feast daily on the Bread
of Life. For eating bread, is a small, good thing, but feasting on Jesus is a huge, great thing.

Main Idea: Since God cares for our physical & spiritual needs,
to pray for daily bread teaches us to be dependent on the gift of God for Life itself.

Qtd. from The Feast: Reflections on the Bread of Life, pp. 10-11.

Qtd. in Phillip Rykens When You Pray, p. 106.

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