Bread

"Give us today our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11).

We say this line in the Lord's Prayer very quickly and think little about it. After all, I know where my bread is coming from today and tomorrow. If there isn't any bread in the house, I just head over to Kroger. I don't pray for daily bread (except when I repeat the Lord's Prayer) because I know that I can get bread myself, without God's help.

And that's exactly Jesus' point. What are the things we think we are providing for ourselves? In what ways do we assume we'll just take care of ourselves? Do we not know that God has given us the means we use to "provide for ourselves"? Anything we have is from him ultimately, not anything we have done. Even if we want to argue that "I worked for the money I used to pay for that bread," I think Jesus would ask, "But who gave you the skills you used to work?"

The people Jesus is speaking to are largely subsistence farmers, those who exist not just from paycheck to paycheck but from day to day. They knew, far better than we do, what it means to rely on God for daily bread. If no work came their way, no money would come their way, and no bread would come their way. If they prayed this prayer, it was in far more desperation than we would pray it. The ability to make and have bread might not come in today. Such a prayer reminded them to trust that God would provide.

A few verses later in the sermon, Jesus says this: "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:34).

Between that comment and the prayer about bread—well, it's almost like Jesus doesn't want us to worry, isn't it? Worry (which, full disclosure, I am an expert at) displays a lack of trust in the God who wants to give us good gifts. Worry says it all depends on me to provide, to earn, to get. Worry is what led the Israelites to collect more manna than they were supposed to, beyond their daily allotment. And when they did, if you remember, the manna rotted overnight. God was teaching them dependence. God was teaching them about trusting him for daily bread.

In a culture of abundance, where some have too much, some have enough and others have so little—how will we learn dependence? In a world where we think we can do it all ourselves, how will we learn to stop worrying and start trusting? Maybe it begins with a simple prayer...

"Give us today our daily bread..."

Great...now I'm hungry for bread...