Give Us Tomorrow's Bread

For a variety of reasons I have been anxious and troubled of late. Perhaps it has to do with age. It has nothing to do with health, for the Lord continues to grant me good health. Yet I find myself projecting into the future with such thoughts like, How long have I yet to live? Will I grow ill one day and die from the illness? Will someone have to care for me as my strength ebbs? And other nonsense such as this.

So I return each day to the Lord's Prayer and pray again, "Give us this day our daily bread." Yet as I do so I wonder if I really understand what I am saying. What is this daily bread for which I am asking?

I am quite content with Martin Luther's explanation of daily bread. It is everything that belongs to the needs of the body, such as food, clothing, good weather, health, home, wife, children, good government and so forth. So it was that Joseph invited his brothers to his home to eat bread with him long after they had sold him into slavery and he had become chancellor of Egypt (Genesis 43:24). Bread is all that we need to care for us. My concern is not with what the word bread refers to, but with the fact that I and others find ourselves being anxious and troubled about tomorrow's bread and the bread we'll need years far into the future.

Jesus addressed this in His Sermon when he said,

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matthew 6:27-34).

As I read this admonition I thought about the Manna that the Israelites were provided during the 40 years of their wanderings in the wilderness and Paul reminding us that this history was written for our instruction (I Cor. 10:11). One of the things that struck me was that they were forbidden to search for Manna on the seventh day, the Sabbath, the day of rest. Then I recalled that Jesus died on Friday, the sixth day, as He said, "It is finished." He rested from His labor on the seventh day, the Sabbath. From His completed work we have received the bread we need for our journeys. Jesus is our living bread of God come down from heaven (John 6:51).

On the night Jesus was betrayed, as the sixth day began with the setting of the sun, He took bread and gave it to His disciples, saying, "Take eat. This is my body"(Matthew 26:26). In turn, John invites us to reflect on how Jesus fed thousands in the wilderness with a boy's lunch. Later Jesus rebuked the crowds that followed as He said,

"Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal" (John 6:27). 

In this faith and with this Word, I return to the prayer and the phrase daily bread. The word daily must refer to the most immediate day before us, the day we are about to come upon. So Luke, using the same Greek phrase, wrote in Acts

"So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis" (Acts 16:11). 

So we may pray to our Father to give us the following day's bread and know with certainty that He will, because we are His children in Christ, the true Bread of life. We are children of the Kingdom. He will take care of tomorrow. On the day before us our Father will provide. We are free to focus upon the troubles and challenges of today. That is all we need to concern ourselves with. Knowing this, anxiety melts away.