kneel in wonder at heaven touching earth

Give us today our daily bread

When Jesus said, “Give us today our daily bread”, he wasn’t suggesting that we make a trip to our local supermarket for a loaf of Warburtons finest bread. He was, though, making the point that it’s okay and right to consider our daily needs in our prayers. After all, without the strength we need for each day, we will find it difficult to truly do his will and serve his kingdom.

Some of the early Church Fathers spiritualized the bread to refer to the bread which was served at Holy Communion. Part of the reason at least, which is easy to understand, was that it seemed too earthly praying for something as mundane as groceries, after praying for God’s glory.

Yet, “daily bread” does mean just that, daily bread. The word, “bread” refers to that food which sustains us. And in the wider sense too, bread refers to all that we as humans need to live. Food for our next meal matters to our Father in heaven, he does concern himself with what’s on our shopping list.

The word translated as “daily” — the focus of this petition — proved to be a bewildering one for scholars for centuries. I understand it doesn’t appear anywhere else either inside or outside of the Bible. It was eventually translated because of a housewife’s shopping list that was found on a scrap of papyrus by an archaeologist a, relatively, few years ago. She had written this word for “daily” next to several items on her list. It’s thought that it meant something like, “enough for the coming day”.

With our fridges and freezers solving our longer term storage problems, we rarely need to purchase food for a single day nowadays. We store up such an abundance of food that we’ve become less aware of its production and gathering, less thankful for it.

When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, we’re not asking for everything from the Harrods Food Hall. We’re praying for bread, the necessities for life rather than luxuries. Enough for the day to come, not enough to store up for years to come.

When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, we’re asking not just for ourselves but other family members too. If we are given two loaves, and our brother or sister none, then our prayer for daily bread has been answered — we have to share rather than hoard. That should apply corporately as well as personally. It is said that God provides enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.

We can bring all of our requests to God, even the small, mundane, ones. We can pray for all the things that matter to us — bread, a coat, a pair of shoes; enough for the coming day. If we need them, then as well as mattering to us, they matter to our heavenly Father too.

This is the sixth post in a series offering a reflection based on each of the clauses of the Lord’s Prayer

Your will be done on earth as in heaven

Our praying for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven provides us with a basic foundation for our prayers. We’re asking that his will be done in our lives and in the world around us. Although we do all too frequently seem to get things upside down, and pray as if we expect God to change the way he is doing things just because we’ve given him our petitions. When we’re at our worst, we seem to expect God to change the universe and give us what we want, in much the same way as we’d expect a genie to give us what we demand after we’ve given his lamp a polish.

We must recognize the importance of conforming our will to his will — not his will to our will. Prayer isn’t about getting God to do my will; it’s asking that his will be done in my life, my family, my business, and in my relationships, just as it’s done in heaven.

Forty-two years after his death, Beethoven’s body was exhumed. Apparently, someone had buried him in a way that revealed his attitude; he was found with his arms up and his fists clenched in defiance. Beethoven became deaf at thirty, and remained so until he died aged fifty-six. He felt that God had hemmed him in and died an angry and bitter man.

It was only in grim resignation that Beethoven prayed for God’s will to be done. It’s possible to resent that God is God while praying for his will to be done. Many people despise God because he hasn’t made them master of their own fate. But those of us who have a relationship with God, and know him as Father, who know that his heart is not only righteous and holy but also gracious and kind, can know that all things will work together for good for those who love God.

This is the fifth post in a series offering a reflection based on each of the clauses of the Lord’s Prayer