Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
11Give to us today our daily bread.
In the last post, we looked at how no request or concern is too small for prayer. My next observation, in a way, grows out of all of that. Psalm 145:15,16 says, “The eyes of all look to you, O Lord, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.”
Food. Eating. We humans spend a great deal of our time and energy making sure we have food. Today, groceries take up a significant chunk of our income, especially if you add that it’s not only the groceries themselves, but we need a refrigerator/freezer to keep them in, a stove to cook them on, all the plates and silverware and such, and then we have the time it takes to cook it, serve it, eat it, and clean up afterwards. Consider how it wasn’t that long ago, people lived on farms where most of their day was spent growing their crops, caring for the livestock (much of which would later appear on their dinner table), gardening and canning, etc. Today there is a restaurant on every corner, it would seem, and their parking lots are often full, but then “eating out” certainly isn’t cheap, so we’re back to hours working just to be able to pay for it all.
So, we have to work a LOT at this simple, basic business of eating. To us, it appears it is entirely our doing. We must do the work and then we will be able to eat. Yet, what is the prayer we’re considering? “Give us this day our daily bread.” Notice the “Give.” Combine that with the words of Psalm 145 noted above, and here we are again with this business of faith and sight. By sight, it appears to be completely up to us whether we eat or starve. Yet, what are we being told to see by faith? In spite of what we think we see, even a slice of bread is a gift from God!
While an unbeliever thinks it’s all on them, what does faith remind us? Who gave you the very breath to work at all? Who makes crops to grow or not? Who protects those crops and livestock all the way to our dinner table? I don’t think it’s any mistake that the old farm families were people of deep faith – they lived (and worried their heads off) in the realization that they could only plant the seeds. Whether or not there would be a crop was completely dependent on God Himself! They were very aware they could not make it rain or the sun to shine. They were terribly vulnerable to insects, weeds, storms and seemingly a thousand other threats that could mean starvation for them the next winter. They lived in the constant realization they need God.
Perhaps it was easier for them to see it, yet it is true for them and us both that we are totally dependent on the Lord even for the food on our tables. Even the simple word “Give” is for us a grace word. By faith, we can see, if He does not “give” us our food, we’ll not have it! “He opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing.”
When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are acknowledging, by faith, our utter dependence on God even for the food we eat. It is good for this man to sit here and let these thoughts swirl in his head. I want to remember this all day every day. I want to be totally dependent on the Lord for even my food, in spite of the fact that it may look like “it’s all up to me.” It reminds me I am not alone. I am a man with a God. All of life is about this constant companionship. Without Him “I can do nothing,” yet He calls me to work, even for the food I eat. He says to the world, “If a man will not work, neither shall he eat” (II Thes. 3:10). And still, as it says in Psalm 145, “the eyes of all wait upon You, O Lord, and You give them their food at the proper time.”
I admit I’m just rambling now, but I really do want these truths to sink deeply into my heart. I must work (a lot) for my food, yet still it is a grace gift from my God that I can eat at all. I owe Him humble thanks for every morsel that passes through my teeth. As I sit here pondering, I’m reminded, as it is always true, that my “work” is actually a privilege. The Lord could leave me lying in my recliner and just drop food in my mouth. Yet from the very Garden of Eden (even before sin), the Lord in His wisdom and kindness put man there “to keep it and to till it.” He called us to work for that which was, in reality, a grace gift straight from His hand. He rained down manna for the Israelites to eat, yet they had to go out every morning and gather it. He could have just dropped it in their pots.
I’m reminded once again that it is actually an enormous dignity for us humans that He does not just “drop it in our mouths,” but instead calls us to work for that which He gives us. Back to our companionship with Him. He’s so kind, He allows us to be a part just like the rest of our lives and everything we do.
The only thing He must do alone is to save us. “For by grace are you saved, through faith, and it is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works…” (Eph. 2:8). Yet even that glorious passage goes on to say of those He has saved by grace, that we are “created in Christ Jesus to do good works…” (v.10). I guess we can say the plan always is that He wants us to work as much as we can, but He does for us that which we cannot. In salvation, He must do it all. In the rest of life, He calls us to this “God and me” companionship.
I know, especially at work, it is an enormous comfort for me to remember that. There is so much that needs to be done. Yet, while I can meet with people, discuss projects, do the calculations, design even entire water and wastewater plants, yet I can’t make the money appear to pay for them. I can’t make deliveries show up on time or equipment show up without serious defects. I can’t control the weather. I often have no control over whether other people do their part. I cannot ultimately control whether any project gets done on time, in budget, and is well built and a good solution. I can only “do my part.” As Daniel told us all, “Wisdom and power belong to God.” It is a great peace to know I am not alone, that I am a man with a God.
This simple little prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” reminds me all of this is true, even for the very bread I eat.
I want to be reminded of this every time I eat – every time I put food in my mouth, even as I’m “working” to even make it possible. It’s God and me. He is very present. We work together. He doesn’t need me, but I desperately need Him. He allows me to join Him and grants me the dignity to “do my part.”
What a good, kind, and wise God He is! “Give us this day our daily bread.”
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