Thursday, November 22, 2012
Matthew 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.
THANKFUL FOR MY DAILY BREAD
"... when you mention and pray for daily bread, you pray for everything that is necessary in order to have and enjoy daily bread ... Therefore you must open wide and extend your thoughts not only to the oven or the flour-bin, but to the distant field and the entire land, which bears and brings to us daily bread and every sort of sustenance. For if God did not cause it to grow, and bless and preserve it in the field, we could never take bread from the oven or have any to set upon the table" (Martin Luther, Large Catechism).
In his "Small Catechism" Luther includes godly spouses, godly children, good workers ... good government good weather, peace, health, education, honor ... etc. When we pray for daily bread, we pray for all these things and more.
Luther also notes that while Satan tries to wreak havoc in the church with His lies, he also tries to rob us of our daily bread. He "hinders the stability of all government and honorable, peaceable relations on earth. There he causes so much contention, murder, sedition, and war ... he is sorry that any one has a morsel of bread from God and eats it in peace."
Let us keep this prayer, then, in our hearts and on our lips. Without God's provision and protection we can enjoy nothing good in this world. Finally, we know that God in His mercy provides daily bread in order to extend people's times of grace. "God our Savior ... desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3-4). By providing daily bread for all mankind, He patiently gives sinners time to "Come To Calvary's Holy Mountain" and be saved!
Feed Thy children, God most holy, Comfort sinners poor and lowly;
O Thou Bread of Life from heaven, Bless the food Thou here has given!
As these gifts the body nourish, May our souls in graces flourish
Till with saints in heavenly splendor At Thy feast due thanks we render. Amen.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 659)
