In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). What did Jesus mean by this statement?

First – GOD CARES ABOUT OUR DAILY NEEDS. We tend to compartmentalize things. God sees that our total being is interrelated. He cares about our total being. “Beloved, I pray that in all things you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers” (III John 2). Jesus told us “not to be anxious about what we are to eat or wear. Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow neither reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” (Matthew 6:25-30)

Second – TRUST AND DEPEND ON GOD FOR YOUR DAILY BREAD. To pray for our “daily bread” signifies that we trust Him to supply what we need. When God delivered the Israelites and led them through the wilderness, for 40 years He supernaturally provided manna. But each morning, in faith, they had to go out and gather just what they needed for that day. Those who did not trust God to provide for the next day and hoarded more than they needed, saw the manna breed worms and stink. Those who trusted God had plenty. (Read Exodus 16.)

When Elijah, the prophet, obeyed God, he was directed to hide during a terrible drought at the brook Cherith. God sent ravens to bring him bread and meat each morning and evening. (Read I Kings 17.) When the brook dried up, God sent him to a widow woman. The woman didn’t have much, but when she obeyed the Word of the Lord and baked the prophet a cake first, God blessed her barrel of flour and oil so that it remained full until the drought was over. (Read Exodus 16:8-16.) When you pray for your “daily bread”, are you trusting and depending on God’s promises? (Read Luke 6:38 and Philippians 4:19.)

Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). David reminded us, “I have been young and now I am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or His seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:25). If you are right with God, you have a right to pray and trust God for your daily bread.

Third – OUR DAILY BREAD IS MORE THAN FOOD FOR THE BODY. Jesus’ primary focus was not with bread to meet our physical, temporal needs. His concern was for the whole man – his body, soul, and spirit. Jesus repeated what God had told Moses and the Israelites, “And He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you manna which you did not know nor your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone. But by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4, and Luke 4:4.) God was telling the Israelites that as God supernaturally provided their daily bread in the wilderness, that this remarkable provision was not sufficient to sustain them in soul and spirit.

When you pray for your “daily bread”, do you also pray for your spiritual bread? Jesus declared that He was the true bread from heaven. (Read John 6:32-58.) We must daily draw from Him the very life of God. As our Father in heaven is the author and giver of all temporal needs, so He is the giver and sustainer of all spiritual needs. “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32). Jesus revealed, “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63).

How is Jesus the “bread of life”? As a seed must fall into the ground and die to produce grain, so Jesus, the eternal seed, died and rose to life. As grain must be beaten, crushed, and ground into flour, so Christ was beaten and crushed for us. (Read Isaiah 53). Flour must be mixed with water and yeast, kneaded, and left to rise before being baked and eaten. Jesus arose from the grave. “I Am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever and the bread also which I give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51).

Pray in faith to receive the living bread as your daily bread. Remember, you are what you eat. Partake of Christ daily. And if you don’t like the way the cookie crumbles, try the Bread of Life – Jesus.

“For as many as received Him gave He the right to become son’s of God, even as many as believed on His name” (John1:12).