Daily Bread

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

DAILY BREAD

Luke 11:2-4

2 He said to them, "When you pray, say:

"'Father,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come.  

3 Give us each day our daily bread.

4 Forgive us our sins,

for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

And lead us not into temptation.'" 

NIV

We have come to this part of how Jesus taught us to pray regarding our daily bread. Why would Jesus want us to ask for bread each and every day, or does, giving us our daily bread mean that we could ask for thirty of forty loaves of bread so that we would have enough stored up for one every day of the month? Most of us have some sort of regular income and buy more than one day's supply of food or bread. It is interesting the two choices between Luke and Matthew regarding two Greek words. Luke uses three words tó kath heeméran meaning day by day while Matthew uses semeron meaning this day. We think the point is, at least concerning bread as food for the body, that we should always think that God is the one who supplies us with that bread. He is the one who has made it possible for us to obtain the bread. Although, many non-believers are indeed able to purchase their own bread from their own abilities, while never asking God for anything. So then why should we ask him for our daily bread, when we have a regular income and can go to the store and buy our own bread? The right answer is that Jesus told us to ask the Father who is in heaven for our bread each and every day. Now, this could be seen in an entirely different concept as Jesus is the bread of life. Although it is also true the Jews would know their history and how God supplied manna, heavenly bread, each and every day. But then Jesus is also the heavenly bread of life, for he came from heaven to the earth in the form of man. Then we could say that we need our daily supply of Jesus. Therefore, we should ask the Father to give us our daily supply of Jesus, the bread of life. In the case of the Jews when they were wandering, or being led through the wilderness, the manna from heaven sustained their lives. This could translate that we need our daily supply of Jesus to sustain our lives, both here on earth and, more importantly, our eternal lives. If we do not have Jesus each and every day we will surely die. We could get sidetracked by living out the title the world has given us, Christian, saying or confessing that we are Christians, but is that missing our daily supply of Jesus. Again, this goes back to what we thought before concerning we are more than just Christians, but that we are born again, Spirit-filled, bible-carrying followers of Jesus. Our hearts are full of Jesus, he is the very center of our lives, and we could not survive without having all of him each and every day of our lives.