Our Daily Bread
In Matthew 6, Jesus’ disciples ask Him how they should pray. So Jesus teaches them a very simple prayer that covers the basic areas of life. Jesus’ model for prayer orients our hearts toward God and His kingdom work on earth. And in the middle of that prayer, Jesus prays, “Give us today our daily bread.”
What Jesus is showing us is this: God wants us to bring everything to Him in prayer—even the small things. God cares about us and our needs.
This prayer also points out that it is God who gives us good things and provides for us. While it may seem like we earn our own basic necessities, it is actually God who gives us our breath and our ability to work and earn a wage. God even created the very food that we eat.
Everything we have comes from God. That means we can spend time in prayer thanking Him for what He has given us, and talking to Him about our needs.
What’s significant is that Jesus doesn’t ask for God to provide His needs for tomorrow or next week —He only asks for His needs today. Our whole life can change in an instant, and things we’ve stored up for years can be taken away. But Jesus teaches us to depend on God to meet our needs day by day. Dependence on God takes trust—but when we trust in Him, we end up living by God’s power and provision rather than our own.
Take some time today and thank God for what He has given you. Thank Him for taking care of your basic needs each and every day, and ask God to continue to meet your needs each and every day. Consider how you can live with an increasing awareness of God as your provider. He loves you and cares for you.
Psalm 55
English Standard Version
Cast Your Burden on the Lord
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil[a] of David.
55 Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
2 Attend to me, and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
3 because of the noise of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they drop trouble upon me,
and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
4 My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me.
6 And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
7 yes, I would wander far away;
I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8 I would hurry to find a shelter
from the raging wind and tempest.”
9 Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it
on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11 ruin is in its midst;
oppression and ...