Grace can't be stored: our needs have to be met by God each day

Everyone was focused and listening to what Jesus was teaching because there were not familiar with the quality of such teaching. 

In addition, Jesus taught in such a way that they could easily apply what was being said. 

He spoke as someone with authority balanced with compassion and the people listened.

This week we are learning part two of Jesus’ prayer. Last week we learned that when we pray we should not just start with asking God to do things, but Jesus’ model was that we adore God and put Him in His rightful place in our hearts.

We also learned about praying for the greater good… for his kingdom agenda to reign on the rather than ours.  This week let’s look at our verse…

“Give us today our daily bread.”

Today’s verse is what we call short and sweet.  However, there is a lot of background in this little verse. 

Adoring the Lord and having a right perspective about our trials is necessary before asking Him for stuff. Then Jesus switches the direction of his prayer to individual need.

He says, give us today.  Notice that the need for God’s supply for life is a daily one.

We would rather come to God and ask for an abundant supply of what we need to get through the next two or three months rather than have to come to God every single day. But guess what? That’s how God designed it. He wants us to come to Him each day for what we need for dynamic living. 

Now the topic of bread that Jesus brings up cannot be ignored. There is more than just asking for bread for each day. Bread is a symbol of life itself. 

This goes all the way back to the Old Testament in the book of Exodus when God called the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt to go back to Israel, the promised land, where the original family left more than 400 years earlier. 

The nation of Israel, having to leave this land in northern Africa where they were oppressed, now had to travel countless miles. 

Now how is this possible without any food to eat? 

After all, remember they could not prepare for this journey. They could not even wait for their bread to rise, they had to get out fast! How would they be sustained in the wilderness along the way?

On top of this we learn that there were approximately two million people that needed to be fed. We come up with this number because when the census was taken in the book of Numbers there were 600,000 men.

These were men from the age of about 20 to 40 maybe (mean able to fight).  This does not include children, teenagers, and women. 

How is it that these people could survive in the wilderness? The Bible says God provided a bread substance, called “manna” from the sky each day to provide for their needs. 

The false assumption that anyone can make about that time is that it was the bread that kept them alive.

However, it was not really the bread that brought them life, but the One who supplied it… God Himself.  As a result the popular verse came about….

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

In other words, it was God’s Word that kept them alive.  He gave them bread each day. It is no wonder that Jesus Christ calls Himself the Bread of Life!

Now, this is extremely important to remember.  We need our needs met by God each day. We cannot store up God’s provision or grace as much as we could fill up our lungs with enough air to last for a month. God wants total dependence upon Him….  each day… one day at a time. 

Hence based on Jesus prayer, we need to be willing to depend on the Lord every day and rely on Him to make our daily needs.  Not only bread for living, but for life itself. He is the One who supplies all we need to live.

Will you ask Him today for your daily provision, not only to survive in this life to thrive in the abundant life?

Gary C. Simons serves as the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Bible Fellowship, presently meeting at CedarBridge Academy each Sunday at 10am.