Our Father in heaven, . . . give us this day our daily bread (Matt. 6:9, 11).

To answer this prayer, God may sometimes deny the physical blessings of this life. In doing so, he never denies us the “daily bread” he taught us to seek in the Lord’s Prayer.

Jesus taught the precise nature of prayers for daily bread when he said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me” (Jn. 4:34). The Christian who prays for daily bread asks God to supply the food necessary to further eternal purposes – God’s will.

If sacrifice for the sake of others, or deprivation for the sake of deepening faith, is what is most needed to nurture a heart for God or make our witness of him shine more brightly, then each is God’s daily bread.

Do not believe that faithful Christians have never gone hungry or that God has ever failed to provide their daily bread (Heb. 11:36-38). For the one whose spiritual food is doing God’s will, there is no greater nourishment than the physical blessings or challenges that enable us most to glorify God.

Heaven’s bread nourishes our desire and ability to please God. The prayer for daily bread is but another way of saying to the Lord, “May your gracious will be done in my life.”

Prayer:
Father, may your grace so stimulate my desire to please you that the daily bread that most nourishes my soul is whatever you provide that enables me to do your will.