Daily Bread

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11

Give us this day our daily bread. The Lord is faithful to provide for all our needs. In Matthew 6 He tells us not to worry about what we will eat and drink. He tells us to look at the birds of the air and how He provides for them. He tells us to instead seek the Kingdom of God. When God sent Elijah to Zarephath to visit the widow in order to have her provide for him, what the Lord was really doing there was providing for the widow and increasing her faith by showing her the power of God. When Elijah told the widow that the Lord wanted her to provide a cup of water for him and some bread, she told him the following:

“So she said, ‘As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.’” 1 Kings 17:12

God wanted to use Elijah to reveal to her that He is there to provide for us, so the Lord told her through him “the bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.” The Lord knows our needs and He is faithful to provide for us. The Lord also brought her son back from the dead because of her faithfulness. God will not desert us, and He can provide for us even when it seems there is no hope. God even had the ravens bring Elijah bread and meat every morning and evening when the Lord told him to go and hide by the Brook Cherith.

Beyond this though, when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, the adversary said to Him—because He was hungry after fasting for 40 days and nights—“If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Jesus answered him that “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” God has food for us that goes beyond just our physical needs. He wants to feed us with His word. To eat this and see that it is good. When Jesus met the woman at the well, he told her that “whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst again” (John 4:14). He also said—after He had fed the 5000 in the wilderness—that He was the manna from heaven: "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). He will provide for our spiritual as well as our physical needs. This is the bread that we should be hungering for because this is the food that will truly satisfy. This is the bread that He wants us to desire as it says in Isaiah 55:

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live;” Isaiah 55:1-3

Let us hunger and thirst for righteousness so that we can be blessed like it says in the beatitudes. This is the daily bread that we should pray to receive because this is what will truly satisfy. God wants to give us this bread so that we can truly be filled and so our soul can delight itself in abundance. God Bless you!