What can daily bread do for you?

The Lord’s Prayer – Part 2

In part 1 of the Lord’s Prayer, I looked at and talked about the first few verses:

“Our Father, Who is in heaven, Holy is Your name.  Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven.”  If you have not read that blog post, I encourage you to take a moment and read it now. The second builds on the first!

For this part 2 post, I am focusing only on the next verse, because it is jam-packed with revelation for those who have ears to hear!

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

• What do you think about when you read this?
• What exactly is our “daily bread”?
• Is it physical bread or food?  It might be.
• Does “daily bread” mean give us our needs?  Possibly.  One thing to keep in mind is that what Father God thinks we need and what we think we need are often two different things!  We often confuse our wants with our needs.

As I studied this and searched out deeper meaning, I asked Holy Spirit to teach me.

I first started by looking up the original Greek word for bread in this verse.  It means:  “subsistence, that is, needful – daily.”

Holy Spirit asked me:  So what is needful for you daily to exist? 

Immediately Matthew 4:4 came to mind.  When tempted by satan to turn a rock into bread when He was fasting in the wilderness, Jesus answered: “The Scriptures say: ‘No one can live only on food. People need every word that God has spoken.”  (CEV).

So the word of God is needful for us daily to exist.  What is the word of God?  The bible.  The bible is what we call the Logos word.  It is the written word of God that provides direction for our lives, how to live a Godly life, how to walk in the blessings of God, and how to overcome the enemy among other things.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (Ampl) says this about God’s word:  “All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage]; so that the [a] man of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  That’s a mouthful!

Psalm 119:105 (NLT) says this about God’s word:  “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”  If you don’t have light, you can’t see the way and you stumble in the darkness.

And Proverbs 4:22 (Ampl) says this about His words: “For they are life to those who find them, and healing and health to all their flesh.”  What a great promise!  Not just one part of us, but all of us!  Our entire body!  The GNT says it this way:  “They will give life and health to anyone who understands them.”

God is saying….if you want to be healed, if you want Divine health, it is needful for you to search out, find, follow and apply My word.

Some people might say – but doesn’t the bible say that it is by the stripes of Jesus that we are healed?  Yes, that is true.  But Jesus also said in John 14:15 (Ampl), “If you really love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments.”  It’s the synergy of faith and action working together.  Paul gives us this command in 2 Tim 2:15 (KJV):  “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  We have the responsibility as Christians and disciples of the Lord Jesus to study – to take time and make the efforts at learning so that we can accurately handle and skillfully teach the word of truth.

Speaking of handling, God’s word becomes an offensive weapon and defensive weapon in our hands.  Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”  Through God’s Word, we learn what truth is.  Through God’s word, we begin to distinguish between right and wrong – God’s Kingdom of right and wrong, not man’s!

Ephesians 6:17 tells us how we are to spiritually dress ourselves every day.  We are to daily to “take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” so that we can stand against the attacks of the enemy.

As I pondered on all of this, Holy Spirit asked:  Who is the Word of God?

John 1:1 (NKJV) gives us the answer:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Jesus is the Word and the Word is Jesus!

Not only is the written word of God necessary and needful for my daily existence, but the person of Jesus Christ Himself.   In Acts 17:28 (KJV) it says “For in Him [Jesus] we live and move and have our being.”  The ERV version says it this way, “It is through Him that we are able to live, to do what we do, and to be who we are.”  In other words, He is our all in all.  He is not just subsistence.  He is substance.  He is the very substance of my being.

So when I pray, “give me this day my daily bread”, I’m actually asking for a lot!  I’m asking for God’s word for me for this day.  He knows what I need.  He knows what I will be facing.  He knows the decisions I will have to make.  I cannot tell you the number of times that when I seek God first thing in the morning, whatever I read and study ends up being exactly the direction or strength or courage that I needed for the day.

When I pray, “give me this day my daily bread”, I’m also asking for Jesus. Give me this day my daily portion of Jesus.  Because I live in Him, through Him, by Him, and for Him I need Him daily.  He is essential to my existence.  In Jesus is everything.  He is complete.  He is whole.  There is nothing missing.  In Jesus is healing and deliverance and peace and purpose and power and prosperity and provision.

I am not designed and created to operate independent of Him, but in full dependence of Him!  DAILY!

Holy Spirit then asked:  Who is the Bread of Life?

Jesus in John 6:35 and again in John 6:48 said, “I am the bread of life.”  Bread was a staple in the diet in Jesus’ day.  But it was not like the bread of today that has been processed and refined and is devoid of life.  Remember Hebrews 4:12?  “For the word of God is alive and active.”  Jesus, as the Bread of Life, is active and live – not dead!

Let’s look at that entire passage from John.  (6:31-33, 48-51)

“Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, “He gave them bread from Heaven to eat.”  Then Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses did not give you that bread from Heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from Heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.

I am the Bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and died.  This is the Bread which comes down from Heaven, so that a man may eat of it and not die.  I am the Living Bread which came down from Heaven.”

In the Old Testament, when the Israelites left the bondage and slavery of Egypt, God provided manna in the wilderness for His people to eat.  Manna was something that had not existed.  Moses said to the Israelites in Deut 8:3, “He [God] fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your fathers know it, so that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of Jehovah man shall live.”

That manna was representative of His Son Jesus.  That manna was a complete food source with everything God’s people needed for adequate nutrition and health.  Jesus is a complete source for our every need.

We are to feast upon the Bread of heaven.  We are to feast upon the completeness of the Bread of Heaven, which is Jesus, which is God’s word.

To do anything else is consuming something incomplete and a counterfeit that ultimately brings death instead of life.

God gave the Israelites daily manna.  He directed His people to collect only what they needed for the day.  If the people gathered more than they needed for the day, they woke up the next day to find what they had gathered spoiled and full of maggots!  God was saying:  I am giving you fresh food each and every day.  I want You coming to me every day for your sustenance.  I will provide for your needs.

God’s word is full of so much instruction and symbolism!   This same manna story is speaking to us today through the Lord’s Prayer.  Jesus is giving this same direction to us today as God did back then:  to ask each and every day for that which Father God has for us, which is….

Give us this day our daily, fresh, life-giving, life-sustaining, nutrient dense bread.  Give us Your word and give us Jesus!

Stay tuned for Part 3!

If you are interested in learning more or need help in making and implementing lifestyle changes, contact me for a free discovery session to see if we are a fit.  You can learn more about me here.