PATER NOSTER 3: OUR DAILY BREAD

Common interpretation on 'Give us each day our daily bread' has been a wide range from (1) asking God only for our basic needs to (2) showing our daily dependence on God. 'What is our today daily bread?' may serve as a more relevant question. Jesus was teaching to his disciples whose financial situation was insecure. Jesus' crowd were mostly proletar, poor and marginalized. There was no guarantee for the disciples to enjoy proper meals on daily basis. The begging for bread was offered with a sincere hope. They were truly uncertain if they could enjoy dinner later in the evening. The begging for 'our daily bread' is a survival prayer. 

Readers of this blog, I assume live in a totally different situation. Our 'daily bread' may neither be food nor water, since most of us (readers of this blog) may be able to purchase even more than a plain bread at anytime we want. As I wrote somewhere else yesterday, 'If the disciples of Jesus were middle class outdoor activities oriented people living in a four season country, a prayer for a bright nice wonderful perfect day would have been necessarily added to the Lord's prayer.' What are our survival needs today?

Thus, before we ask God for things we need, make sure that we are desperately in need of God to realize those specific needs. It is in that sense that the phrase 'our daily bread' should be understood. Can we ask God for beautiful clothes, branded shoes, laptop with most recent technology, last edition of i-phone and sparkling jeweleries? Sure we can, those things however may not be 'our daily bread' base on two reasons: (1) we may be able to afford to buy those things, and (2) we may not really need those things in order to survive. We are certainly free to ask God for anything we want, the Lord's prayer, while does not forbid, however does not encourage us to do so.

Now, I should balance my comment above. Bread (or food) is human most survival need, regardless our ability or inability to afford it. Since we may not have severe problem of obtaining our daily descent food, the request for 'our daily bread' is now transformed into an action of faith and thanksgiving. We have faith in God (and it is only him) who will provide us with our basic needs, and thus we are so thankful for his providence. Since most of us eat on daily basis, therefore the action of faith and thanksgiving should also be offered on daily basis.

'Our daily bread' thus teaches us (1) to find our survival needs; (2) to request our survival needs in our prayers; (3) to sincerely hope for God's generosity to fulfilling us with those needs; (4) to have faith that even though we are powerless, God will be able to provide those needs; (5) to thank God for providing us with those needs; and (6) to do all of those items above on daily basis. This daily spiritual exercise needs discipline, otherwise our daily prayers are no more than lips services. 'Our daily bread' shows that Christian faith is a faith that believe in the continuity not only of God's providence for us, but also a continuity of our dependence on our heavenly Father.