Give us this day our daily bread.

Matthew 6:11

This is our daily bread. We buy it in the market. With it, we make toast and lunchmeat sandwiches, PB&J, and eggs in a basket. We serve it buttered and jellied and with aguacate (avocado). It has even made decent garlic bread in a pinch on pasta night. It’s simple and affordable. It nourishes us and never goes to waste (even the heels). Like boxed milk, we add it to the cart every time we go to the supermarket even if it’s not on that day’s menu—it’s that important. Like manna from heaven, we rely on it…as do so many others here in the Dominican Republic.

 

During my daily journey through scripture, I was led to Proverbs 30:8-9 which says,

⁸ Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches,

but give me only my daily bread.

⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’

Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

 

Now this Proverb is not one of Solomon’s, but a wise thought from a man known simply as Agur son of Jakeh. Some scholars believe that the text suggests this man was from Massa, in the area of Judea and Babylonia. Others suggest that Agur was a penname used by Solomon to mean “compiler.” Regardless, Agur’s true identity remains a mystery. What I find interesting is the parallel we read in Matthew 6:11 in Jesus’ example of how we should pray as believers. When Jesus instructs to ask for our daily bread, we can understand that as contentment with what God has given us in the moment and for that day. We don’t worry about tomorrow because today has enough problems of its own (Matthew 6:34), meaning what we will eat and so on. When the Israelites were hungry and wandering in the wilderness, God miraculously provided them with manna each morning, but with the instruction not to save any for tomorrow (with a Sabbath provision) (Exodus 16). Likewise, in Matthew 6:19-21, we’re told not to store up our treasure here on earth where moths and rust, worms and mold can destroy it, but rather place our lives, our hopes, our treasure in the Lord where no rot or thief will ever find it. It’s all about contentment and trusting that the Lord will provide in perfect measure and in perfect timing.

 

There’s a lesson here that is also mirrored in Philippians 4:11-13. Agur prayed not to be either rich or poor, but to be satisfied, to have just what he needed in the moment knowing fully who had provided for him. Similarly, Paul wrote to the church in Philippi encouraging them that they—as he himself had done—could learn to live in times of plenty and in the shortfall, when hungry and well fed: in all circumstances because of Christ who strengthens us and helps us through it all. With this lesson there is a warning: too content, with bellies too full, we risk forgetting from whom all blessings flow, not content enough and we become the very thieves who steal other’s treasures. There is a call to balance and that balance is Christ Jesus.

 

Jesus is really our daily bread—the bread of life (John 6:25-59). We come to Him hungry and thirsty and, in Him, are filled and refreshed. The bread we buy in the store, while delicious and nutritious, does not sustain the whole of our bodies. It is a bread consumed daily in order to have enough strength to make it to the next day and then the next, and the next, and so on. But true sustenance—sustenance for the soul—comes from God (Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3).  The very Word of God feeds us. It nourishes and strengthens our soul, and satisfies beyond the physical. And because God is awesome and amazing and an author who perfectly designed His perfect story, we know that:

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning.

³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, 

the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son,

who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1-5, 9-14

 

As we draw ever closer to Christmas, I want to remind you that in Jesus we witness the holy duality of Christ where His is both the gift and the giver. He is the Word that sustains and gives life. He is the Word the directs us and calls us to Him. He knows us all by name and knows the exact ways in which we need to be fed—we like Agur son of Jakeh, need only ask. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we too can give a hungry world this same gift. I challenge, ask the Lord this day for your daily bread, but don’t keep it all to yourself, and don’t store it up for the future. Take your bread and share it with someone who is hungry, someone who needs to hear the Word. Share Jesus. He’s the only gift that’s a perfect fit.

 

—Tim