The Lord’s Prayer
Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11
We began this study of the Lord’s Prayer in a previous edition of Daily Rest. It was mentioned that a majority of the petitions deal with our spiritual needs. The fourth petition is one of two petitions that address our earthly needs.
As we pray for “our daily bread”, it would be easy for us to think that we are only asking for food. However, as Martin Luther brings out in his Small Catechism, what we are requesting is broader. He writes, “‘Daily bread’ means everything we need for our bodily well-being. It includes food, drink, clothes, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money and goods, a godly husband or wife, godly children, godly workers, godly and faithful leaders, good government, good weather, peace, health, education, honor, faithful friends, trustworthy neighbors–and things like that.” Keep these earthly blessings in mind as we pray this petition.
How are we to regard such divine blessings? James writes in his letter, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (1:17) While many have the attitude they are deserving of any good thing, this Word of God reveals to us that all good things are undeserved, divine gifts.
This Bible passage also reassures us of God’s faithfulness to provide us with the many earthly things we need. This truth is pointed to every time we pray this petition saying, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Everyday we look to God for our temporal needs, and trust Him to provide for us tomorrow.
Give us this day our daily bread
And let us all be clothed and fed,
From war and strife be our Defense,
From famine and from pestilence,
That we may live in godly peace,
Free from all care and avarice. Amen.
The Lutheran Hymnal 458:5