There are two errors we can fall into with regard to the material things we pray about in this fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. The first is that we value them too much and set our hearts on them as if they were the means to a happy and fulfilled life. The apostle Paul warns us against this error in 1 Timothy 6:8-10.
And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and [into] many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
The other error is despising the good gifts of God, and even, like the gnostics and at least some of the ascetics, holding that the body itself, and everything that is associated with it, is evil. This is the error against which the apostle warns us in 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God [is] good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
The first sin is fundamentally the sin of gluttony and also the sin of idolatry (worshiping and serving the creature more than the creator). It is the sin that is more prevalent in our times and the one against which we must be the more earnestly warned. But the second sin is not one that is wholly unknown: there are those ascetic personalities who believe that the more they deny the needs of the body the more holy they will be. They will say that it is more holy to sleep on a stone floor than in a warm bed, that it is more holy to go hungry than to eat, that it is more holy to be celibate than to be married. And they are as wrong as the gluttons and idolaters.
The fourth petition teaches us the virtue of moderation or temperance. In it we do not pray for abundance, so that we may gluttonously stuff ourselves with the good things of this world, but neither do we so despise them that we refuse to pray for them at all. We ask, Give us this day our daily bread, or, as Solomon puts it in Proverbs 30:7-9:
Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
Let’s consider three things about this petition.
- We are praying for God’s good gifts
There are many things included in our prayer for daily bread. Think for a moment about what goes into the putting of a loaf of bread on the shelf in the grocery store. There’s the delivery along with the men and machines necessary for it, the making of the bread and the wrapper, the delivery of the ingredients to the bakery, the making of the ingredients (flour, yeast, salt, etc), the delivery of the supplies to those who make the ingredients, the growing and harvesting of the supplies, the fertilizer and sunshine and rain that are necessary for the ingredients to grow, and then the sustenance and health of all the people involved in this process. All of it is directed by the providence of God. He makes the sun shine and the rain fall so that grain grows. He makes available the materials to make the machines that men use to harvest them. He gives men the strength and cunning to invent, build and use the machines. In fact, in the whole long succession of events that we call the supply chain, we must see the providence of God, who enables and guides it all. God uses means to accomplish his purposes, and we are daily dependent on those means and his providence. When we ask for our daily bread we are asking that this whole immensely complex web of things and events be maintained by the power and wisdom of God.
All these things that belong to normal earthly life are good gifts of our God. The apostle Paul teaches us that they are to be received from God with thanksgiving and to be sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Nevertheless, we must not confuse these good gifts of God with his grace or favor or blessing. God’s gifts of material things and God’s blessing are different things. The gifts may come with or without his blessing. The Heidelberg Catechism says it very well in Lord’s Day 50: without your blessing neither our care and labor, nor your gifts, can profit us. In fact, the gifts may come, in some instances, with his anger and his curse.
This is a difficult thing for us to remember. We are very prone to envy those who have abundance and to despise those who have little. If we will only stop and think for a minute, we will see how foolish that is. Does the poor righteous man who struggles from day to day to take care of his family have less of the favor of God than Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg or Warren Buffet? Does the Christian dying of cancer or some other debilitating disease know less of God’s love than the robust young men playing professional sports on the Sabbath? God’s grace is not in the abundance of things.
The Scriptures testify of this in many places and in many different ways. In Psalm 37:16 the Lord says: A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. In Psalm 73 Asaph envies the prosperity of the wicked until he understands that God has set them in slippery places. According to Ecclesiastes, abundance without the fear of God is vanity. In Habakkuk 3 the prophet says that he will rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of his salvation even though he has no food to eat.
God makes his sun shine on the just and the unjust. He gives rain to both the righteous and the wicked. These are good gifts, given indiscriminately to both. We may go a step farther and say that he does not distribute equally. To one he gives much, to another little. Frequently he gives much more of his good gifts to the wicked than he does to the righteous. But the measure of good gifts is not the measure of his favor and blessing.
However, let’s not, in understanding this, fall over to the other extreme, and begin to think that there is a special blessing of God on those who have little of this world’s goods, and that to have riches is, in and of itself, a curse. A rich man may be blessed in his wealth, and a poor man cursed in his poverty, just as surely as a poor man may be blessed in his poverty and a rich man cursed in his wealth. God’s blessing and cursing cut across our categories of rich and poor.
Why is that? It is simply because God blesses the righteous, whether rich or poor, and curses the wicked, whether rich or poor. His favor, his love, his blessing are reserved for his elect, those for whom Christ died, and those who have been redeemed and sanctified by his blood.
And none of this changes the truth that our daily bread is a good gift of God, something to rejoice in and to enjoy in proper measure as long as God chooses to give it. God calls all men, righteous and wicked, to acknowledge him as the Father of lights, the giver of every good and perfect gift.
But it must be received with thanksgiving and sanctified by his word and prayer. This is why we give thanks for our food at every meal, and this is why we pray every day at the beginning of the day, Lord, bless this day’s work and provide for us according to our needs. We want to acknowledge him as both the one who gives and the one who blesses.
2. We are praying for a sufficiency
We do not, in response to the truth that material things are good gifts of God, desire and seek to have as much of them as possible.
We pray give us BREAD, because we want to ask only for what we need. We add the word DAILY – give us daily bread, and mean by that to ask for bread for today only, not for tomorrow. We say, give us OUR daily bread. We ask for what he has allotted to us for today, that portion which he in his eternal wisdom has determined shall be ours. We will envy no other his larger portion and despise no other because of his smaller portion. And we say, give it to us TODAY, because today is the day that we need it so that we may fulfill our calling. We pray with Solomon, Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me. We do not ask for abundance.
Why? Why, if all these things are good gifts of God, should we not ask for more than we need?
First, because of the dangers to our weakened and corrupted natures. Solomon recognizes these in Proverbs 30: Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the Lord? And Paul says in I Timothy 6 that those who want to be rich fall into temptation and the snare of the Devil. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches are often too much for us. They choke the word, and we become unfruitful. It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
Secondly, because they are perishing. Moth and rust corrupt and thieves break through and steal. The form of this world is passing away with everything that is in it.
Thirdly, because these good gifts of God are secondary. There are more important things, and those are the things that we really want and that constitute our fundamental need. They are the spiritual blessings in heavenly places. They are the things that our Lord teaches us to seek and desire in Matthew 6:19-34.
And what do we do if God gives us more than a sufficiency, as he has done so often in the past? We give thanks. We sanctify his abundance by his word and prayer. We use it in his service. We rejoice that he has given to us the means to help the poor and to support generously the cause of his kingdom.
Do we enjoy some of the extras that his abundance has made possible? Surely, giving thanks also in that. But even in this enjoyment we practice moderation, not gluttony and wantonness, not rioting and drunkenness, but sobriety and godliness.
3. We are praying with a view to the kingdom
I said a little while ago that when we ask for our daily bread we are asking for the portion of material things that God has allotted to us for today. What is that portion? That portion is what he has determined we need for that day in order to fulfill our calling to serve him in whatever station and work he has given us for that day.
The station and the work vary from day to day: Today it may mean worshipping among his people, and tomorrow going to the office. One day it may be working in the yard, and another day staying in bed because of sickness. Tomorrow it may mean grocery shopping, and the day after visiting a widow. We often don’t know what the day’s work will be. That too he governs by his providence.
Not only does the work and calling vary from day, but so also does the portion of bread that he allots to us for that day. Tomorrow when I go to the office, he may give me much more than I need, as I understand it, to do that work. The day after he may give me nothing for what seems to me to be the very same work. He makes some rich and some poor, but always gives to each the portion allotted to him for that day. It may not be what you think you need. What he provides for the day may look very odd or even unpleasant to you, but it will be what is necessary. That portion, whether much or little, or even nothing, will be exactly what you need so that you may serve him in your station and calling for that day. He will never call you to do anything, and then not give you what you need, also in material things, to do it.
Therefore, we pray for our daily bread with a view to the kingdom of God. You have a place in that kingdom. It may seem a lowly place to you. It may seem to you to have little to do with the kingdom: washing dishes or laboring over some recalcitrant bit of business software at the office, or whatever. Sometimes it may even seem far removed from spiritual things. But do it with your might, because you are laboring in and for the kingdom of God.
That’s why Jesus says, Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Pray for your daily bread, your allotted portion for that day, whatever is necessary for you to serve him in your place for that day, and he will give it. It may not be what you expect. It may be nothing at all, but whatever it is you may sure that it is exactly what you need and what best enables you to perform your service to him that day.
And pray not only for yourself but for your brothers and sisters in Christ, that they too may have their portions. That’s what our Lord teaches us when he tells us to pray, Give US this day our daily bread. He may seem to dote on the rich and give them much more than he gives to you. But that’s okay. He is giving him what he needs and you what you need. He has much and you have little, but both of you can say, I want nothing. God has given me what I asked, and I am thankful for it.
When you pray Give us this day our daily bread, then, expect surprises. He will not give you stones for bread, but he will very often give something entirely unexpected. He may give you nothing. Receive what he gives with thanksgiving and rejoicing. He gives you what is best for you that day. Today he gives bread, tomorrow steak. Sanctify both by his word and prayer. He may give you sickness. Receive it with thanksgiving and rejoicing; he has given you what you need for that day. Trust your heavenly Father. He will care for you in every possible way and bless you every day with every blessing you can bear, until he brings you to your everlasting home where you will have good unmixed with evil.