“Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)

Do you ask God to give you the food you need every day?

Why should a rich person ask God for his daily bread?

Or – in case you don’t think you are rich (see this sermon for arguments that you are) – why should anyone with money in his wallet and savings in the bank ask God daily for the sustenance he needs?

Jesus gives us “The Lord’s Prayer” as a model, in response to His disciples’ request to be taught how to pray (Luke 11:1-4). The petition for daily bread is part of this model. Jesus wasn’t speaking here only to his poor followers – “Ask God to give you the food you don’t have, and trust Him to provide it!” – but He clearly implies that all his followers should pray like this. So the injunction to pray for daily bread applies both to the poor, indigent leper Jesus heals in Luke 17, as well as to the rich Zacchaeus who is saved in Luke 19. Clearly the leper, most likely dependent on begging, needs to pray for his food. But Zacchaeus remains wealthy even after he gives away half of his assets. Why should he ask God for his daily bread when he has enough saved up to buy his every meal for the next several decades?

Two biblical principles are key for answering this question.

First: You deserve nothing of what you own. Economists have researched the question: How much of the differences in wealth between people is due to their different skills, abilities, and work effort, and how much is due to accidents of birth, of race, of nationality? Even looking at the issue from this completely secular point of view, the vast majority of differences in wealth across the world are due to accidents. The country you are born in has much more impact on your wealth as an adult than your abilities or your work effort. Many bright, hard-working people are exceptionally poor. So from a secular standpoint, you deserve very little of what you have. You have most of it by accidents of birth.

But from a biblical viewpoint, you deserve none of it. Deuteronomy 8:17-18 warns us:

Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth,

Whatever skills you have come from Him. Whatever work effort you have comes from Him. You could not think, you could not work, you could not eat, you could not digest your food apart from God’s sustenance and provision. As James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” That is, nothing good that you have comes from anywhere else. God is the source of everything good – everything you have, everything you have ever experienced.

So recognizing that, give thanks for what you have and ask Him to provide for this day’s needs.

Second biblical principle: All that you have could disappear in an instant.

All material possessions will disappear when Jesus returns (2 Peter 3:10-12). They won’t last. They will do you no good on that day. They are a temporary grant from God, to be used for His purposes.

And even before that Last Day, disasters happen. Hurricanes. Tsunamis. Stock Market crashes. Robbery. Embezzlement. Illness. Disability. One day your assets may look sufficient to carry you through many years. And the next you might lose everything. As Proverbs 23:5 says, “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” So do not set your security on the uncertainty of worldly assets, but the certainty of a faithful God (1 Timothy 6:17).

So as you sit down to eat today, surely give thanks to God for His provision. But also, when you wake tomorrow morning, ask your heavenly Father to provide the food you need for that day. Acknowledge that apart from His provision, you would have nothing. Look to Him as your security, as your hope, as your joy. Admit your dependence. Ask – and He will provide all you need to fulfill His purposes.