Matthew 6:11 “Give us today our daily bread” (NIV)

I remember allowance day. Each week, my dad would hand out our allowance to each of us, but we would remind him even before he was ready to hand it out. Here we are beseeching our creator whom we have just called “Father in heaven” for the same thing. We are asking Him to grace us with something that we need as we have the right ask for! Imagine one of my friends coming over to my house and asking “Mr. Carter, could I have my allowance please?” My dad would tell my friend to go ask my friend's parents! We can approach the Father on every day stuff, as we must!

“Give us today” is immediate only. We must ask every day. Just as God gave the Israelites enough manna for one day's supply (except for the sabbath) He only gives us what we need immediately. After all, is not the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of all there with us at all times? He will give us exactly what we need, and not a tadbit more or a squinch less that what we currently need.

“Our daily bread” is what we need to survive, but also so much more. Just as in Deuteronomy 8 God taught the people of Israel that man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from His mouth, He was meaning that although we think we need the basics to survive, we have not truly identified those basics. The most basic of basics is God. We can live on what God says. We need nothing else. Now physically we need to have the five basic food groups – grains, fruits, vegetables, proteins, and fats- but spiritually all we need is Him.

Much of the time, we can say these words and maybe feel slightly better, but He means it! I know that a while ago there was a time where this verse was very important to me. I was in a tough financial spot and so for a period of time God was providing what I needed. I recall visiting a local church and I was given a loaf of bread when I left. Now it was not a regular long boxy loaf such as you would find in a supermarket, it was round. It was covered in cheese and garlic and had some tomatoes baked on top. They did not know this at that church when they gave it to me, but that was my lunch for the rest of the week. When I ran out, something else came up that supplied nourishment, when that supply finished, something else happened. This was a wonderful period of time for me where I learned how George Muller felt when he penned these words: “For above fifty years I have now walked, by His grace, in a path of complete reliance upon Him who is the faithful one, for everything I have needed; and yet I am increasingly convinced that it is by His help alone I am enabled to continue in this course; for, if left to myself, even after the precious enjoyment so long experienced of walking thus in fellowship with God, I should yet be tempted to abandon this path of entire dependence upon Him. To His praise, however, I am able to state that for more than half a century I have never had the least desire to do so.”

God provided for me what I needed, when I needed it. Funds came at the needed time, often just as I would need them. I would get overtime at work and just as that paycheck would come with the extra money, the exact amount extra would be required to take care of something that had happened, whether it was buying a new tire for my car, or getting my computer fixed after a lightning strike, or for the un-budgeted for fuel surcharge the electric company added to my bill this past winter.

As I needed, He provided. He has been faithful indeed! He provides both physically and spiritually all I need for the moment. “Give us today our daily bread” becomes all we need. Patience is given us not a jot more than we need, just as He also provides a timely thought or quote that we will immediately turn around and use to further His glory. Today, I leave you all with this final quote to think about (also by George Muller):

“God, God alone became my portion. I found my all in Him; I wanted nothing else. And by the grace of God this has remained, and has made me a happy man, an exceedingly happy man, and it led me to care only about the things of God. I ask affectionately, my beloved brethren, have you fully surrendered the heart to God, or is there this thing or that thing with which you are taken up irrespective of God?”