Daily Bread
When we’re praying the Lord’s Prayer, we’re asking for provision but also for a guide for our day. Maybe it feels like a stretch to consider our daily bread in this way, but let’s consider the three aspects of discipleship here.
Be with Jesus: There is a dailyness, a regularity to our relationship with Jesus. Jesus called Himself “the bread of life.” While we need food to survive, what we need even more is to be with Jesus, daily.
Become like Jesus: When we are with Jesus in this daily way, we recognize who it is that provides for all our needs. And, importantly, we recognize what those needs actually are. All this, to get us to the point where if the tempter comes to us with dreams of bread, we can say like Jesus and the prophets, “Man shall not live on bread alone.”
Do like Jesus: All of these overlap to get to this one point here, focusing on the “us” and the “our”. There are people in your neighborhood right now who do not have their daily bread, who do not have their daily needs met. Sometimes we might think of the image of bread, like, yes, possibly our neighbor needs Jesus. But if we stay there, we miss the point that no one should be hungry. When we look at the bread that we have for today, do we have more than we need?
This is what God’s kingdom coming looks like, this is what God’s will on earth as it is in heaven looks like.