Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

Are you hungry?

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

It may be the simplest request in the Lord’s Prayer. We need food, so we ask God to give it to us, but there’s much more packed into those two words: daily bread.

Daily bread includes everything we need for this earthly life.

• Food and clothing.
• A home and income.
• Good government and good weather.
• Health, family, friends, and neighbors.

The list in the catechism is surprisingly practical and this petition teaches us something.

God cares about ordinary life.

Sometimes we can imagine that God is interested primarily in “spiritual” things. We pray about forgiveness, faith, and eternal life, but hesitate to bother Him with the everyday concerns of paying bills, finding work, recovering from an illness, or having enough food for the week.

Jesus teaches us to pray for those things too.

Your body matters to God. So, does your work and your home and all the needs of ordinary life. After all, He created you with a body and placed you in this world. The same Father who created you continues to care for His creation.

And much of the time, He does it through ordinary means.

The bread on your table may have come from a grocery store, but before that there were farmers, truck drivers, warehouse workers, store employees, rain, soil, and sunshine.

God often hides His provision behind ordinary people doing ordinary work.

Sometimes we refer to this as God wearing masks. He’s at work, but he’s working behind the mask of a farmer, neighbor, construction worker, etc.

There is another interesting part of Luther’s explanation. He says that God gives daily bread even to evil people, even without our prayer. Jesus says this as well when He said,

“For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” – Matthew 5:45

God provides because He is good, not because we have earned His generosity.

So why pray for daily bread?

We pray that God would lead us to recognize His gifts and receive them with thanksgiving.

That may be the harder part.

It is easy to notice what we lack. Someone else has a nicer home, a better job, more money, better health, or fewer problems. Soon, the gifts God has placed in our hands seem small because we are looking at what He placed in someone else’s.

The Fourth Petition turns our eyes back to our Father.

Give us what we need…today.

Remember the Israelites in the wilderness. God provided them manna, bread from heaven, every day, but only enough for that day. 

Jesus doesn’t teach us to pray for enough bread to guarantee that nothing can go wrong for the next twenty years. He teaches us to pray for daily bread.

There is trust in that prayer.

Tomorrow, we will ask again. And tomorrow, our Father will still be our Father.

The greatest proof of His care is Christ Himself. The Father who did not withhold His own Son from us has already given us something far greater than anything we need for this earthly life. In Christ, we have forgiveness, salvation, and an eternal inheritance that cannot be taken away.

So receive today’s gifts with thanksgiving.

And when tomorrow comes, ask again.

Your Father knows what you need…He cares…and He gives generously.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for providing everything I need for this life. Forgive me when I overlook Your gifts or become dissatisfied with what You have given me. Open my eyes to recognize Your daily provision, give me a thankful heart, and teach me to trust You for tomorrow. Through Jesus Christ, my Lord.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.