Our Daily Bread

The word we’re hearing more and more in the news these days is the word ‘worry’ – worry, because UK unemployment figures have risen to 2 million, with some predicting 3 million by the end of the year; worry, because home repossessions rose last year to 40,000 and the rise looks set to continue; and worry, because savings have dramatically fallen in value. Eg, my wife Tess’s parents set up a share portfolio for her years ago and she gets a regular letter from the stock broker. The latest one said, I quote,

‘While the market as a whole has fallen by 20%, your portfolio has fallen by just 16% - a result which I hope you’ll agree to some extent justifies my existence.’

I didn’t think he sounded that sure about the justifiability of his existence, but it was a nice touch of humility.

Now the news is saying that this is a particularly worrying time. But worry is actually an issue for us all the time. Because we always have needs, so we always face the temptation of worrying about those needs being met. And that’s the backdrop to the next part of this series on the Lord’s Prayer, as we come to the request:

Give us today our daily bread. (Matthew 6.11)

So let’s begin after rather a long break in this series back in Matthew chapter 6 and v7. The Lord Jesus is speaking and says:

7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans [ie, those in non-Christian religions], for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (vv7-8)

So Jesus is saying: non-Christians often view prayer as a way of trying to manipulate their gods into giving them what they need. It’s as if their gods are like a bad landlord who basically couldn’t care less and has to be badgered to do anything for you. And the Lord Jesus says to those of us who trust in him, ‘Don’t you pray like that, because your heavenly Father isn’t like that’ – v8, ‘he knows what you need before you ask him.’ So we don’t have to fill him in on what our needs are, or try to get him concerned to meet them – he already is. And so, among other things, we’re told in the Lord’s Prayer to say, v11:

Give us today our daily bread. (v11)

And this morning we’re going to look at that verse on prayer, and then at the end of chapter 6 on not worrying – because the two go together. I’ve got two headings,


First, TRUST, PRAY AND THANK GOD FOR MEETING TODAY’S NEEDS (v11)

All of that is really implied by v11, ‘Give us today our daily bread.’ But what exactly is covered by that request?’ Well, the food we need, obviously. But then look on to the end of chapter 6 which we’ll come to later – chapter 6 and v31:

31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' (v31)

So, food, drink and clothing. And in the New Testament (NT) clothing often includes the idea of shelter – housing – too. Those are the needs that the Lord is on about here – which in turn means we need money to buy them, which in turn means we need jobs to earn money, which in turn means we need to get through education and pass exams to get jobs, and then to have the health to do them. So at the very least, all of what I’ve just mentioned comes under the heading of ‘daily bread.’

Now for most if not all of us, when we pray, ‘Give us today our daily bread,’ the truth is: we’ve got it already. Our fridges and wardrobes are full and we have a roof over our heads. We have jobs and bank balances and health. We already have what we need. And that calls for thankfulness. And as someone has written,

‘Our lack of thankfulness shows us up as practical atheists – taking for granted as part of our circumstances things that are in fact continual gifts from our Father in heaven.’

So when did you last give thanks for your job; or for the skills that mean you have that job; or for the health that means you can do it day by day; and so on?

And along with thanking God goes trusting God to keep securing what we need. Eg, I think it’s easy for those of us in work right now to think, ‘My job secures me,’ and to feel that those out of work right now haven’t got any security. But the truth is: our jobs are not securing us; the Lord is. For the believer, there’s no such thing as ‘job-security’, only ‘God-security’. And God secures us either by providing a job for us, or by providing for us while we’re between jobs.

But what about when we are out of a job, or our job is uncertain? Well, for one thing, while that is our situation, we need to keep trusting, praying and thanking God for meeting today’s needs. If the fridge and the wardrobe are not empty and the roof is still there, then we do have daily bread. So let’s not allow tomorrow’s need – eg, for a job, or an exam result or a place on a course – to eclipse the fact that the Lord has met today’s need. For another thing, we need to be careful about how we react to answers to prayer – especially apparently unanswered prayer. What if, after a while, the Lord hasn’t yet provided us with another job? Well, there is always some mystery about God’s timings in our lives – he has reasons for things that we simply don’t know at the time. But it’s also worth asking whether we’re looking for something more narrow than what will meet our needs. Eg, I have a friend who’s a very highly-qualified graduate, and whose natural inclination would be to hunt in a very narrow graduate sector of jobs. But he had to take work with a temping agency and through that has currently got a not-that-well-paid local council job. But it provides for him and his family. And it’s a reminder that God hasn’t committed himself to further our career plans, but to provide for our needs.

So that’s the first thing this morning: Let’s trust, pray and thank God for meeting today’s needs. And what the Lord Jesus goes on to do, after teaching us the Lord’s prayer, is to call on us not to worry about tomorrow. So that’s my other heading this morning:


Secondly, DON’T WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW (vv25-34)

And this takes us on to Matthew 6.25 onwards, where the Lord Jesus tells us:

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. (v25)

To which you may be thinking, ‘But I have a wife and children and my job is uncertain right now. What do you mean, ‘Don’t worry?’ Or, ‘I have depression right now and I’m struggling to hold down my job. What do you mean, ‘Don’t worry?’ Or, ‘My savings look as if they’re not going to provide anywhere near what I thought they would in future. What do you mean, ‘Don’t worry?’ Well the Lord doesn’t mean, ‘Have no concern about your responsibilities.’ And he doesn’t mean, ‘Don’t think ahead and plan for possible ways of providing for tomorrow’ – the book of Proverbs has a lot to say about planning and saving. What he means is: ‘Don’t carry those responsibilities and do that thinking and planning anxiously.’

I said earlier that lack of thankfulness in prayer shows us up as practical atheists. But so does anxiety. Because anxiety comes from facing our responsibilities and the uncertainties of the future as if God wasn’t there – as if we had no heavenly Father who’s both fully in control of our circumstances and fully committed to our good. And that again is practical atheism. So listen to the Lord Jesus restore our vision of what his Father and our Father is like. Matthew 6, v25:

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important [literally, ‘more’ or ‘greater’] than food, and the body more important [literally, ‘more’ or ‘greater’] than clothes? [The logic being: if God has given us the greater things of life and body, doesn’t it make sense to trust him to have a Creator’s commitment to supply us with the lesser things – the things that life and the body need? Read on, v26:] 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? [Skip to v28:] 28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (vv25-30)

Now those examples don’t imply that we don’t have to work or save – just watch the next blackbird in your garden doing mortal combat with a worm, and you’ll know they do work. God uses the means of our work – our sowing, reaping, spinning, storing, teaching, nursing, whatever it is – to provide us with income to meet our needs. But the point is: to those of us who trust in Christ, God does have a Father’s commitment to provide for us as his children. So the Lord Jesus isn’t just saying, ‘Don’t worry.’ He’s saying, ‘Don’t worry – because God is like this.’ But in v27 he adds a more pragmatic reason:

27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (v27)

Ie, worrying doesn’t achieve anything. Worrying about what questions come up in the exam can’t affect what questions come up. Worrying about our jobs can’t make them any more secure. Worrying about the lump the doctors have found can’t make it any more benign. But it feels like a way of doing something about circumstances beyond our control; it feels as though turning our circumstances over and over in our minds can somehow affect them. But it can’t. It’s an attempt to control what is simply out of my control. So look on to v31, where the Lord Jesus sums this all up:

31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. [ie, don’t make it your primary, all-consuming aim to meet your own needs – as if you had no heavenly Father looking out for you]. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness [ie, make your primary aim to spread the gospel and build the church and see God’s will lived out in all areas of your life and public life], and all these things [that is, everything we need – not necessarily everything we want – ‘all these things’ like food and drink and clothing and shelter] will be given to you as well. (vv31-33)

And the example of that which always comes to my mind is my old vicar in Cambridge, Mark Ruston, who’s now in heaven. Mark gave himself to the ministry of the Round Church, now St Andrew the Great, for, I think, 34 years. He lived in tied accommodation and never bought a house and never thought it right to save more than the basic pension for retirement, so that he could give to all sorts of Christian causes along the way. So when retirement came, he had no house; he probably would have gone into a room of a retirement home. And I’ve never forgotten how an anonymous donor stepped in and bought him a retirement flat outright. Which is v33 in action:33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (v33)

That applies in various ways to us, but not least in the area of giving to Christian causes, including to the ministry here. Because when things are financially tight, we tend to seek first ourselves by giving less and saving more. That’s certainly what the world would say: make the cushion of financial surplus around yourself as big as you can. But the security of that cushion is really an illusion, and instead we should continue to seek first his kingdom by giving what we can, and trusting him to provide for our needs.

So look at the Lord Jesus’ final word on this in v34:

34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (v34)

And that ties in exactly with the perspective of this morning’s part of the Lord’s Prayer – ‘Give us today our daily bread.’ Because although God elsewhere in the Bible, encourages us to plan ahead for the future, he tells us to live in the present and not to live mentally in all the possible troubles of tomorrow. So, eg, I first set up a pension just when big doubts were being cast on pension schemes. And I ‘umm-ed’ and ‘aah-ed’ and felt paralysed over what to do because of all the doom-mongers gazing into their 30-year crystal ball and telling me what might, or would, go wrong with any scheme I joined. But the wisdom of v34 says, ‘By all means try to do something prudent about the future, but then don’t live there in the future, in endless worry about whether you’ve done the best thing and whether you should undo it and do something else. We’re to live in the present and trust that God will secure us in our tomorrows.

Let me end with two questions about God’s promise in v33 to give us all we need.

One question is: what if I was unemployed right now? Would God really be keeping that promise in v33 to me? Well, for one thing, I’d say again what I said earlier: unemployment – and maybe a subsequent down-grade of job and standard of living – may be uncomfortable, but that’s not the same as being without daily bread, without true necessities. But the other thing to say is that the Bible sees unemployment as part of God’s blanket judgement on the sin, greed and injustice of the economy we’re all part of – just like mortality is one of God’s blanket judgements on the sinful human race we’re all part of. And believers aren’t exempt from being caught up in those blanket judgements. And when we are, we’re not to interpret it as God failing to be the heavenly Father portrayed in these verses. So, eg, the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk was caught up in God’s judgement on Israel – including economic problems. But listen to what he wrote:

17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. (Habakkuk 3.17-18)

But the other question is: what about famine? If I was a believer facing possible starvation today, would God really be keeping that promise in v33 to me? Well, again, the Bible sees famine as one of God’s blanket judgements (although in many cases it’s caused or compounded by human sin). Genesis 3 explains that God cursed the physical environment, making it hostile to us through things like drought. And like the other curses after the fall, that was to teach the human race that we can’t rebel against God without consequences; we can’t turn from our Creator but still expect him to make life comfortable. And believers also get caught up in the blanket judgement of famine. But when they do, God remains their loving heavenly Father. So, the apostle Paul says in Romans 8:

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?... 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8.35, 37)

Ie, in the midst of such things, we know God still loves us because he showed his love once for all at the cross. But at the same time there will always be some mystery as to why he allows specific things.

But let me say one last word from an incident last year in Kenya when I visited our link church in Mburi. The most memorable moment was sitting in a wooden hut, talking to an elderly couple in the church. They’d always been desperately poor by our standards, and in several failed harvests, they’d depended on food supplies we paid for. And yet they spoke with no doubt about God’s goodness. In fact they said to me, ‘We thank God for the food that the people of Jesmond have given us. Tell them we can see their faith is real.’

One reason for mentioning that incident is that we tend to feel that by allowing such circumstances to happen to believers, God is making it almost impossible for them to trust him. But in fact, God is well able to sustain people’s faith even in extremis – and when people do trust him in extremis, it brings him even more glory than we who trust him often more feebly in plenty (hence the point of telling you about that couple). But the other reason for mentioning that incident is that it reminds us that we should respond practically as well as intellectually. Inevitably we ask the ‘Why?’ question. But primarily we should give. And we’re bound to do that because the Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray not, ‘Give me my daily bread’ but ‘Give us our daily bread’. And as we pray for the needs of others to be met, it should dawn on us that God intends to use our surplus resources to answer those prayers.

So the news day by day is cause for worry – and sometimes almost telling us to worry. And in response, the Lord Jesus doesn’t simply say, ‘Don’t worry.’ He says, ‘This is what your heavenly Father is like – therefore don’t worry’:

31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.(vv31-33)