Daily Bread

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

Day by day
Day by day
Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day

Lyrics from “Day by Day” (Godspell)

When it comes to eating, we like to plan menus, think ahead, stock up the pantry and fridge, etc. During the pandemic, we learned to store up food (and, of course, toilet paper), and we got into a “store-it-up” mentality. That is a natural response for modern times.

Back in the time of Jesus, people had to make sure that they got their food for that day each and every day. Very little food would keep fresh, and refrigeration and more modern preservation methods were not available.  They counted on going to the local market to buy bread, fresh- caught fish, and perhaps, occasionally, freshly slaughtered meat. They literally were “day-to-day” in finding their daily bread.

The Israelites in the desert too were dependent on daily sustenance from God in the form of manna. God provided for them with a fresh coating of manna daily, which could not be stored up except for the day before Sabbath when they could gather two days-worth of manna.

Why was this the plan? God wanted the wandering tribe, the people of his name, to count on him day by day. He said he would provide for them, and he wanted them to see that, but more importantly, he wanted them to learn to trust him to do it. That gathering of extra manna, when not gathered the day before the Sabbath, would rot and become loathsome to eat. The point was, they were not to count on their own cleverness when God had told them to simply trust him.

Trusting God day by day is hard to do. The daily discipline of reliance is a hard-earned habit.

Prayer: Lord, you have asked us to trust you day by day. Your provision is always there when we look for it, Amen