He Provides for All Your Essential Needs.

“Daily bread” refers not only to food on our tables but to life’s essential needs. This petition does not refer to literal bread only. “Bread” in Hebrew meant all kinds of nutrition. But it is even more than that. “Daily bread” refers to everything nonspiritual that we must have to live and cope. It refers to physical needs, emotional needs, material needs— every need not specifically mentioned in the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.

Therefore, when you pray, “Give us today our daily bread,” you are asking God to step in to give you not only food but also shelter and clothing; to supply your financial needs; to give emotional strength and clarity of mind; to give you friends and fellowship; to grant transportation as needed; to equip you for your job, career, and future; to help you get done what you need to get done this very day; to be at your best; to help you in your preparation; and to provide providences that further God’s plan for your life. “Our daily bread,” then, covers everything that is essential to our well-being in life.

There can be no doubt that this petition also reflects the Old Testament account of the daily manna that God provided supernaturally from heaven. The children of Israel were given manna every day—enough for everyone, and twice the amount on Friday so they would not have to go looking for manna on the Sabbath (Exod. 16:13–30). Although the manna itself was supernatural, the purpose was to keep the Israelites alive.

While some of us, sadly, live to eat, Jesus assumes we must eat in order to live. Furthermore, unless we are fasting on purpose, the assumption is that we must nourish our bodies every day; we should be thankful for food to eat every day.

God Himself is the ultimate source of every good thing. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (Jas. 1:17). This refers also to having a job. The prayer does not mean, “Do not work—just ask God to feed you,” however. We are all under the curse of the fall. Like it or not, the decree in the Garden of Eden—“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground” (Gen. 3:19)—is still in play. Said Paul to his converts: “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat’” (2 Thess. 3:10).

Thank God for your job; thank Him for income. But do not take the Lord’s Prayer as a way of avoiding your responsibilities!

Our daily bread includes the ability to work. We should be thankful we can work, and we should keep in mind those who cannot because of disability or being bedridden. Thank God that you have a job; thank Him that you have an ability to do your job. Thank Him for strength, health, intelligence, peace.