A post on Facebook has got me pondering this afternoon so I thought I'd share my musings.

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

In the culture of Jesus' day, in Roman occupied Israel, many people lived in poverty or bare bones existence.  There was no refrigeration, no chemical preservatives. Therefore, food production and meal preparation was a daily reality.  Compared to our lifestyles in this modern day, and in the harsh climate of Canada, the concept of needing bread every day is foreign to us.  We must harvest, preserve and store away our food in the proper season for use during the winter!

The economy of this first century, middle eastern country was very short term.  Most people had daily work.  Some had careers, long term job security, or family wealth, but the average Jew lived on daily labour and wages.  I'm thinking of the parable in Matthew 20:1-16, where the landowner went out early in the morning to hire workers for the day.  He hired them at various hours of that day, offering the same wage for each of them, regardless of when they were hired.  The point I see is that it was normal for folks to be paid at the end of each work day, and then to go purchase the needed food items for the next day.

The imagery of daily bread was established in the Old Testament, when Moses was leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt and to the Promised Land of Israel.  They had nowhere to acquire food in the desert.  They were pressed into full reliance on God.  It took them 40 years to learn that lesson, among other lessons of faith.  And the very day they moved into the Promised Land, God stopped providing the manna from heaven.  He instructed the people to harvest the land and work to grow what they needed.  But, they were to continue a life of faith and dependence on God, to acknowledge that He is the One who provides all that they needed.

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, the Lord's Prayer became something we say by rote.  We often recite it without thinking of the meaning, that Jesus intended it to be a pattern, not a formula.  As we break down the intention of the phrase "Give us this day our daily bread," we can understand that Jesus did mean literal bread, or food.  He also taught that if we worry about tomorrow's bread, or whatever we need, we are not truly trusting Him to provide.  If we ask for our daily needs, we will learn to trust Him and be content and thankful for His faithfulness.

In applying the principle of asking God for what we need on a daily basis, we can also come to Him for other things.  What about strength?  Do we ask the Lord to give us physical, emotional or spiritual strength for whatever our day holds?  Or do we jump into our schedules and only ask for His help when we run into trouble or find ourselves in over our heads?

What about wisdom?  Do we seek God daily for His thoughts and insight for every situation we face?  Or again, do we only call upon the Lord when we are overwhelmed? 

When we need anything, we can ask and trust that out of His goodness, He will grant us what we ask for.  Patience, perseverance, faith, love, self-control...all the fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22 & 23.  In fact, we can ask for the Spirit of God to fill us up and He will give us more of Himself!

 When we are weak, that is when His strength and power is shown to be great!  As Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, God's grace is sufficient in our times of weakness.  (II Corinthians 12:9)  More than daily bread, we have daily mercies and grace that are new every morning.  (Lamentations 3:22 & 23)  It is such a comfort to know our loving Heavenly Father takes such good care of us.  

I hope that today, YOU have everything you need.  If not, remember to ask the Father for your daily bread and see how He lovingly provides.