Our Daily Needs

Whenever my grandmother visited when I was a child, she always baked bread. I still remember coming home from school to a house filled with the smell of her baking. I always savored my first slice of the still-warm bread that melted the peanut butter I spread on it.

Recalling this experience makes me think about bread in the Bible. In the Hebrew scriptures, breadlike manna rains down from heaven each day to feed the Israelites in the wilderness (see Ex. 16:4). In the Lord’s Prayer we ask for our daily bread (see Matt. 6:11). Both of these examples are about God satisfying our daily needs.

While my grandmother’s bread satisfied my body’s hunger, God’s daily bread satisfies my spiritual hunger. The petition for daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer goes beyond just asking for something to eat — although, sometimes that may be exactly what we are asking for. In teaching us to pray this way, Jesus is telling us to return to God daily to talk about our needs — because God can satisfy them all. And Jesus assures us that we need not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will worry about itself (see Matt. 6:34). Jesus encourages us to make our daily needs known to God and to trust that God will provide for us.