When He begins the second half of what is usually called the Lord’s prayer, in Matthew 6:11 Jesus teaches His disciple to pray “Give us this day our daily bread.”
The “bread” here has been thought of in some interesting ways: as the spiritual food of the word of God or as Jesus as the bread of life, among other things. These are always needed, but in connection with what comes later in the chapter the simplest explanation seems the best for this particular reference to bread.
When we pray this, we’re not praying for wheat or white, but for our basic needs. Throughout scripture, “bread” is often used to stand for food in general. The word often translated “daily” is unique and there has been some debate over exactly what it means, but it seems best understood, as implied by the translation daily, as “for each day” or “day by day”.
Consider Proverbs 30:8-9. Much of the world is focused on getting, getting, getting for me, me, me. School is often focused on getting a “good” job, work is usually about the paycheck we can make, that paycheck is normally viewed as what we can buy for ourselves. Many of our “wants” inflate to “needs” and we become so deeply concerned with keeping up with the Jonses. But for some people, sometimes our own brethren, they scrape by day-to-day. If they do have money, there may not be food to buy. It is easy to recognize the danger in not having enough — that’s why we pray with this attitude — but it may be more difficult for us to see the danger in having too much. Perhaps that’s why instead of praying for bakeries full of bread, we pray for daily bread (Compare Matthew 19:24; 1 Timothy 6:6-10; Hebrews 13:5).
While He was here on earth, Christ showed compassion for those who were physically in need of food: In John 6, Jesus feeds the people physical bread, but then teaches them about spiritual, true bread. He reminds them of when God fed the children of Israel with manna in the wilderness. In the exodus the people grumble and complain, looking back to the food they had in Egypt, saying “we ate bread to the full” (Exodus 16:3). Over the rest of Exodus 16 we see that God gave them enough for each six days then double before the sabbath. If they gathered extra they did not have extra and if they gathered little they did not lack (Exodus 16:17-18).
Now, remember Elijah in 1 Kings 17. After Elijah told Ahab there would be no rain for three years, the Lord sent him to a brook east of the Jordan and fed him by ravens bringing him food each morning and evening (1 Kings 17:1-7). Then, when the brook dried up because there was no rain, God sent him to a widow of Zarephath. She was preparing to eat her last meal and die of hunger, but God provided flour and oil for her to make bread. She was able to make bread and feed herself, her son, and Elijah for many days (1 Kings 17:8-16).
In Matthew 6:24-33, just a few verses following the model prayer, after declaring that “You cannot serve God and wealth” Jesus tells the disciples not to be worried about their life or their physical needs because their heavenly Father knows and will take care. It has been said that “He who possesses what he can eat today, and says, ‘What shall I eat tomorrow?’ is a man of little faith.” (Unknown)
What kind of faith do we have in our heavenly Father to provide what we need for each day? Do we pray truly believing He can do what we’re asking Him for? Do we have the childlike faith and trust in God than we must have?
— Stefan Richardson