Catechetical sermons preached in PCC Evening Worship Services, Feb 2013 to Dec 2017
WSC 104 of 107
Give us this day our daily bread
Matthew 6:11
WSC 104. What do we pray for in the fourth petition?
A. In the fourth petition (which is, Give us this day our daily bread 1) we pray, That of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them.2
1 Mt 6:11; 2 Prov. 30:8,9; Gen 28:20; 1 Tim 4:4,5
We noted previously that the Lord’s Prayer has six petitions, of which the first three are directly about our desire for God’s glory, whereas the next three concern our needs.
Today, we have come to consider the first of the petitions in the second half of the prayer. Remarkably, this is probably the most famous of the six petitions. There is even a devotional booklet used by millions worldwide every day, ironically drawing its name from this petition. We say ‘ironically’ because that “Daily Bread” is of a totally different nature from the daily bread we are taught to ask for in the fourth petition!
Our Shorter Catechism, question 104 asks: “What do we pray for in the fourth petition?”
Answer:
In the fourth petition (which is, Give us this day our daily bread) we pray, That of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them
WSC 104
In other words, the fourth petition teaches us to:
a. Acknowledge that all good things in this life are God’s gifts.
b. Pray for an adequate portion of the good things of this life
c. Pray that the LORD will adorn His gifts with His blessing.
In our present study, with the Spirit of the Lord helping us, we must step back to see how this catechetical statement is a faithful exposition of the Third Petition.
Let’s begin by considering what the will of God is.
1. Acknowledge that All Good Things in This Life Are God’s Gifts
The Lord teaches us to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
We know the literal meaning of bread very well. It refers to food items made with flour. Today we usually buy them from the shops. So we have Gardenia, Sunshine or TopOne bread, etc.
But in biblical times, most people do not buy bread in the streets. Indeed, you can hardly buy flour. Instead, you buy wheat or barley grains, which come to you after the harvest has been threshed and winnowed.
Housewives would then take the grains and crush them with mortar and pestle, or they would ground them in a mill. The mill comprises a circular upper stone and a lower stone. Usually, the upper mill stone has a handler, which is used to turn it in a circular motion upon the lower stone so that the grain between them is grounded.
In other words, housewives usually made their own flour, caught their own yeast, and baked their own bread.
So, in ancient times, people knew a lot about bread. They knew that whether they had bread would depend on whether there was a good harvest. Whenever there was a drought or a disruption in the crop cycle (whether because of war, fire or a locust invasion), grain would be in short supply, and famine would ensue.
The people knew they had to depend on their heavenly Father to give them a good harvest, without which they would have no bread.
Today, if you ask any children where their bread comes from, they will tell you it comes from the supermarket. They do not understand that it is God who must supply the wheat by giving a bountiful harvest.
So, too, even as adults, we tend to take it for granted that as long as we have a supermarket nearby, we will have bread and all other kinds of food!
The prayer “Give us this day our daily bread” brings us back to our senses. It reminds us that all we need for daily life comes from God, our Jehovah Jireh, the LORD our Provider.
Thus, the prayer “Give us this day our daily bread” expresses our dependence upon God.
In biblical times, bread was considered a gift from God. It is by God’s blessing, after all, that grain crops grow. This is why the ancient people had great respect for their food. In Jewish culture, no one would tread on a piece of bread.
It is said that when a Jew, in biblical times, saw a piece of bread lying on the street, he would pick it up and give it to a dog or put it somewhere the birds may get to.
To stomp on a piece of bread or any food, or to waste food, is to despise the gracious provision of the Lord.
So likewise, to fail to acknowledge that all good things we need for our daily life come from God is to be ungrateful to Him. Remember that often in the Scriptures, the word bread is used not only to describe literal bread but all sorts of food and daily necessities.
When the Lord Jesus says: “John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine” (Lk 7:33), He is not saying that John is allergic to gluten and alcohol. He is simply saying that John lives a spartan life that often involves fasting and hunger.
So, we must thank God for our daily provision to sustain our outward man. We must thank Him for our food and drinks. We must thank Him for all our daily necessities.
Children, do not waste your food, and do not eat without thanking God, like the dogs and birds. Remember to acknowledge that everything you eat comes from God, and remember to thank Him for them.
But we must also thank God for everything else He gives us. We should thank him for the job He has provided us, the salary we receive, our homes, the clothes we wear, and the air we breathe.
The prayer “Give us this day our daily bread” teaches us to acknowledge that all good things of this life are gifts of God and to thank Him for them. We should give thanks before our meals as our saviour teaches us. We should also give thanks after our meals as we are taught in Deuteronomy 8:10, “When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God.” And not only for meals, but for all good things of this life.
2. Pray for an Adequate Portion of the Good Things of This Life
In our Shorter Catechism, we are taught to pray, “That of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life.” A competent portion is an adequate or reasonable portion.
Notice how our Lord does not teach us: “Give us our fish, and leeks and cucumbers,” but rather: “Give us this day our daily bread.” That is, “Give us what thou seeth to be necessary and best for us.”
What our Lord teaches us to pray is exactly what Agur prayed for in the book of Proverbs:
Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain
Prov 30:8-9
It is a mischievous error to teach, as some do, that since we are the sons and daughters of God, we deserve the best things in this life, and so we should be unashamed to ask God for them.
Yes, we are indeed the sons and daughters of God. Yes, indeed, we will have the best, but our best is not necessarily God’s best. So, our Lord does not teach us to pray for the best bread, but for our daily bread. So, let us learn to pray for our needs, but let us not tempt God by asking Him to provide us with affluence.
Or let me be a little more specific: If you are out of work, pray for a job that will supply your needs and your family’s needs. Do not pray for a high-paying one. Neither should you detail your expected pay and benefits as some do in their résumé. The Lord knows your need. He will provide.
Likewise, if you judge that a car is needful for you in your present circumstance, pray for a car. It is not wrong to do that. But do not pray for a Jaguar or Lamborghini as the health and wealth advocates may suggest. The Lord knows your need. He will provide what He deems fit.
So, if you are ill, it is right for you to pray for restoration, but you must not expect God to heal you immediately.
The health and wealth advocates will say that if you are not healed, it is because you have no faith. Therefore, they say when you have prayed for healing, you must believe that God has already healed you, regardless of how you feel. But this is an unbiblical teaching. Even when we pray for restoration, it should be qualified, at least implicitly, with: “not by will but thy will be done.” God knows what is best for us. He gives us a competent portion of the good things of this life, including good health, so that we may serve Him with joy.
Sometimes, when we pray for our daily bread, our Lord gives us more than we expect. Then we must thank Him for it, but we should never expect God to give us more than we need. We must ask Him to supply us with what He deems good for us.
But the question must be asked: Doesn’t God supply our needs even without our asking? Does not our Lord teach us not to worry about our daily bread because our heavenly Father knows we need them?
Well, this is true (see Mt 6:32). But if it is true, why should we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”? Well, in the first place, we should pray this prayer because the Lord Jesus teaches us to pray it.
Though we must not worry about our daily provision, we must pray for it. It pleases God that we should come to him to ask Him for our needs. It pleases Him to meet the desires of our hearts. It pleases Him that we recognise Him as Jehovah Jireh, the LORD our Provider.
Indeed, God has promised only those who seek after Him to provide for their needs that they will lack nothing.
“The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing” (Ps 34:10), says the Psalmist.
In the second place, we must pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” because implicit in this prayer is a desire for God to give us our daily provision with His blessing.
3. Pray that the LORD Will Adorn His Gifts with His Blessing
In preparing His people to dwell in the Promised Land, God told them through Moses, Exodus 23:25:
And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.
Notice how the LORD does not only promise bread and water, but to bless their bread and water! There is, in other words, a difference between receiving bread and water and receiving it with the LORD’s blessing.
The New Testament suggests something similar, too. Look at 1 Timothy 4:4-5:
For every creature [i.e. meat created for food] of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Whatever else Paul is saying, notice how he intimates that food is good when sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
In other words, we can have no confidence that the food we eat or any other thing we receive is good unless we receive it with prayer for God’s blessing. Naturally, then, we must be concerned whether we receive our food with God’s blessing.
What is God’s blessing? It is, no doubt, His assurance that what He gives us will be truly good for us. It is fair to say that when we seek God’s blessing by asking Him and thanking Him for our daily sustenance, we will receive a blessing from Him that may or may not be quantifiable.
Remember that everything can be turned into a curse. Having a sumptuous meal may be a blessing for one, but a curse for another. Having a million dollars may be a blessing for one, but a curse for another. Good health may be a blessing for one, but not for another. A promotion may be a blessing for one, but not for another.
Nevertheless, God’s children who seek the Lord’s provision and His blessing upon the provision can be assured of God’s blessing.
Here, then, is what the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer teaches us: (1) Acknowledge that all good things of this life are God’s gifts; (2) Pray for an adequate portion of the good things of this life; and (3) Pray that the LORD will adorn His gifts with His blessing.
Or, more succinctly, in the words of our Catechism:
WSC 104: What do we pray for in the fourth petition?
Answer: In the fourth petition (which is, Give us this day our daily bread) we pray, That of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them.
Well, what shall we do with this instruction?
Of course, the first thing is that we should learn to pray “Give us this day our daily bread.” We should pray it every day. We should acknowledge God as the giver of all good gifts. We should ask Him to provide our needs, rather than assume we will have them. We should ask Him for His blessings upon all He gives us to enjoy. We should thank Him for everything.
But secondly, let us check our attitude. It is one thing to pray with our lips; it is quite another to believe with our hearts. Check your heart to see if you are genuinely grateful to the Lord. Check if you have godly contentment. If you sincerely pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” you will not fret or become disillusioned when God does not give you the desires of your heart. Therefore, if you find yourself angry at providence or questioning God for what He has appointed you, go to Him to ask Him not only to forgive your unbelief, but to change your heart, to give you faith and meekness, to believe that He does all things well.
Finally, as we pray for daily bread, let us remember that there is a higher bread for a higher life. The Lord Jesus says: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (Jn 6:35).
The Lord also says: “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed” (Jn 6:27). Let us, therefore, not forget our priorities. Let us pray and let us labour more for Christ and for our enjoyment of Him than for our necessities of this life. Let us seek His kingdom and His righteousness first, for He has promised that all things whatsoever we need in this life will be added unto us.
Oh, will you not believe Him that He will provide? “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2Cor 8:9).
Are you rich in this world? Remember that you cannot take your wealth with you to the grave. Seek Him and His righteousness first that peradventure you will be rich in the kingdom of God.
Are you poor in this world? Remember that in Christ, you will have an inheritance that all the wealth in the world cannot buy. Rest in Him. Trust Him. Believe Him that when you pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” the Father will hear and provide for His name’s sake. Amen.
—JJ Lim
Edited by: LPS