Dr. J. Vernon McGee :: Chapter 4: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

CHAPTER 4

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

The average well groomed, well-fed Christian congregation of the day will find it very difficult to seriously repeat the petition, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Someone has defined the average church service in America today as a service in which a mild-mannered man gets up before a group of mild-mannered people and urges them to be more mild-mannered. What a sad commentary that is upon the church, if that be true!

But it is very difficult for Americans, who go out to great supermarkets and push baskets through a maze of shelves groaning with all kinds of foodstuffs, to ask God for bread. God just does not seem to be in the colossal business of mass merchandising today. Why make fervent prayer to God for bread in this day of the welfare state, when we are looking to government instead of looking to God? This is a time when we are trying to detour around God in order to get our bread. We have come to a time when statism is a menace. Rome, with her program of bread and circuses provided for the population, should be a danger signal before us in our day. What can follow in the wake of such a program but immorality and decay?

In America at this hour, there is plenty; but this is the only nation where there is plenty, yes, even a surplus today. Over one-half of the world’s population went to bed last night with their hunger pains not fully satisfied. Famine stalks this world today in many parts—the third horseman of the Apocalypse is riding, even now, across the land. We are living on an earth that has the curse of sin upon it. From the day that Adam sinned, God said to him:

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread…. (Genesis 3:19)

And from that day until the present hour, men have found no magic process of producing bread other than by hard work.

We may have it easy now, but may I say that there is a day coming when men in this country will be able to pray this prayer with a great deal of anxiety, of seeking, asking, and knocking—“Give us this day our daily bread.”

Now I want you to notice this petition for a moment. It is so simple, and yet it should come from our hearts with great enthusiasm. It speaks of our utter dependence upon God. Our bodily wants, our physical necessities, all come from Him, and He supplies them day by day. Israel gathered manna for the day; they gathered nothing for the morrow. They were not permitted to gather manna for the next week. This prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” gathers manna every day. It shows man that he lives from hand to mouth and that even his bodily necessities, his basic needs, come from God.

Someone has said that bread is the staff of life, and how true that is! Let us consider man for just a moment and see why bread is so essential to him. As we know, on the physical side, man is made of dust. He was taken out of the dust. We forget that, but the psalmist says:

For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:14)

Oh, how often you and I forget that we are dust, and in our pride we forget our humble origin. There is a saying that “when dust gets stuck on itself, it’s mud,” and to such nothingness pride brings us. Now in the soil you will find that there are sixteen elements, and in the body of man there are sixteen chemical elements. And real wheat bread and real cornbread have in them more of the sixteen elements than any other food that we eat today. Certainly bread is the staff of life, and when we pray; “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are asking God for those basic needs of our physical bodies, and it should teach us to depend upon God and rest upon Him. May I say that I do not think a Christian should be alarmed today because of what the economist is saying about diminishing resources. We are not looking to man to supply our needs; we are looking to God. We must learn to acknowledge God in all the affairs of our lives. A little poem that we teach our children expresses this well:

Said the robin to the sparrow,
“I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so!”
Said the sparrow to the robin,
“Friend, I think that it must be
That they have no Heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me!”⁴

You and I need to remember what He has told us in His Word: When we put Him first, all these other things—these necessities—will be added unto us (see Matthew 6:33).

There is another thing in this simple petition, “Give us this day our daily bread.” God is the giver of everything. You will not find His cost on the loaf of bread that you buy—He is on the giving side. As you look at the loaf of bread on your table, let the thought be thankfully with you that the bread has come ultimately from the hand of God.

Back of the loaf is the snowy flour;
and back of the flour, the mill;
and back of the mill is the wheat
and the shower, the sun,
and the Father’s will.⁵

Back of that loaf of bread is our generous Father, and we can say to Him, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Now I believe that the Lord’s Prayer will not reach its full fruition until the Millennium comes. But someone will ask the question, “How can they pray this petition during the Millennium with the curse removed from the earth and an abundance here?” I’ll tell you how they can pray it, because in that day the One who fed the multitudes with the loaves and fishes will feed His own. The prophet Isaiah says that in that day “He will feed His flock like a shepherd…” (Isaiah 40:11) and in that day men will pray; “Give us this day our daily bread.”

But this prayer has for you and me a higher meaning than that which is physical. For the Christian it has a spiritual as well as a physical meaning. It is more than food, for “man shall not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3). Man has been created for something greater than that, though this little poem does portray some folk in this world:

Into this world to eat and sleep
And know no reason why he was born
Save only to consume the corn,
Devour the cattle, flock and fish,
And leave behind an empty dish.⁶

That is about all some folk do, just satisfy their physical needs and live like animals. But no child of God is here to live in that fashion. We are called to something higher than that, and the food that is spoken of here is spiritual food. This has a spiritual meaning for Christians, for they have not been promised physical blessings alone. Physical blessings are secondary to the Christian today. But if you have them, then thank God, remembering that they are extras. David said:

I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. (Psalm 37:25)

But I guarantee you, there are believers today “begging bread.” Beloved, may I say to you, God has not promised us physical blessings. He has promised us spiritual blessings. Material blessings were promised and given to the nation Israel, but spiritual blessings have been promised to the church. If you want another distinction between Israel in the Old Testament and the church in the New Testament, then remember: Physical blessings in the Old Testament; spiritual blessings in the New Testament.

When Paul the apostle was converted, he was not given a book recommending all of the choice places in which to eat in the Roman Empire. When Paul lists the things that he suffered, he says, “We both hunger and thirst…” (1 Corinthians 4:11). He knew what it was to hunger. And God’s children down through the ages have known what it is to actually go without food. They have known hunger for physical food. The full story has never been told of the thousands who starved to death in Europe during World War II—many of them Christians. There were endless numbers of Christian families, where the father and mother bowed their heads in the mornings and would say, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and then they would see their little ones waste away. Finally death would come to the little folk, and the parents would look at this petition and wonder what was its meaning.

My friend, as a Christian, you must explain to people what this petition means. To tell them that it means physical bread would be all wrong. God did not say that we would not suffer in this age, but He did say that He would provide spiritual bread today for those who want it and who know their need of it. The psalmist tells us that when Israel complained to God and wanted meat to eat, God gave them quails. And the psalmist says, “And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul” (Psalm 106:15). And today God does not always grant our requests, because He does not want our souls to be lean. God is providing us a spiritual bread for He says,

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6)

Do you have a hunger and thirst that the world cannot satisfy? Do you thirst after righteousness? I point you to the One who said:

I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)

Do you know what it is to have your spiritual thirst slaked? Do you know what it is to have that deep down hunger in your heart satisfied by coming to the One who is the bread of life? Oh, today, may our prayer be: “Give us this day our daily bread.” May our hearts go out to Him for He says:

If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. (John 7:37)

There is a verse in the Psalms that has meant a great deal to me, and I want to pass it on to you. It is in Psalm 104, which opens with “Bless the LORD, O my soul!” And verse 15 reads as follows:

And wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart.

This is not bread for the stomach, oil just for the physical face, and wine of the world. Rather, it is the joy of the Lord, the fullness of the Spirit, and the bread—the Lord Jesus—that satisfy the heart of man.

Is He all of this today in your heart and life?

Footnotes:
4. Author unknown.
5. Author unknown.
6. Author unknown.