Introduction

Today is Harvest Thanksgiving. We come together to give thanks to God for all he has provided for us. We have surrounding us these beautiful decorations that represent the fruit of the land through which God provides for our daily needs of food and sustenance. A loaf of bread represents to us the fact that even though we have to harvest the wheat, grind the flour, and bake the bread, it is ultimately God who provides the basic ingredients and the skill and energy we need to make it. And so we come to give thanks.

Now, it just so happens that in our sermon series on the Lord's Prayer, we have come to the phrase "Give us this day our daily bread." It fits in perfectly with Harvest Thanksgiving because, as I hope to show you, this petition is a great incentive to give thanks. Thanksgiving - we give thanks to God for what he has given to us.

Our needs are important

I am often surprised by the number of people who share with me in conversation that they do not ask God for things for themselves; either they don't want to bother him or feel he wouldn't be interested in them anyway. However, the first thing we see as we pray "Give us this day our daily bread" is that our basic needs are important to God. Has it ever surprised you that, in the Lord's Prayer, we move suddenly from the majestic things of heaven to the mundane things of earth? We talk about our Father in heaven, his name being hallowed, his will being done on earth as in heaven and then we ask him to make sure we have supper tonight

But Jesus does this deliberately. In this way, he is showing us that we have a mighty God who is also deeply interested in the humdrum routine of our existence. At the Reformation, one of the great Biblical concepts that was recovered was the sanctity of the whole of life. Before that time, paintings usually depicted great spiritual figures or concepts. After the Reformation, artists began painting people in their daily life situations, such as we see in the Dutch masters. This concept extended to religious figures themselves, including Jesus. In one painting of the time, Mary is even depicted breast feeding her little boy. The Reformers regained the concept that God is interested in the daily routine of our lives and that everything matters to God. So when we pray "Give us this day our daily bread," we are acknowledging God's desire to take care of us in all our needs. Because of this, we are moved to give thanks that we have a God who is interested in us at this basic level.

Who provides for our needs

The second thing we see in this petition is that we acknowledge our dependence upon God. It is God who provides for our needs. The passage we heard read from Deuteronomy stresses this: When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God...You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth We are to remember and not forget that it is ultimately God who provides for all our needs. This is hard for us to realize when we are not directly related to food production; most of here do not take produce directly from the land, we receive it in boxes or cans from the supermarket. But when we see environmental disasters such as the smoke from jungle fires in South-east Asia, the damage caused by acid rain or the eruption of the volcano in Montserrat, we realize how fragile is the environmental balance and how dependent we are on God for the provision of even the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the ground we live upon. Even though God secures things through our own efforts or those of others, ultimately he is the sole source of supply.

So when we ask him for our daily bread we remind ourselves that all we have comes from him. In this way, we express our dependence upon him and so we are moved at the same time to give our thanks.

When we have our needs met

One of the things in life that can rob us of peace is anxiety. We are worried about what will happen in the future. Jesus goes straight to the heart of this problem when he tells us that we are to ask "Give us this day our daily bread." We are not to ask for a month's supply, just enough for the next twenty-four hours. Jesus elaborates on this in the Sermon on the Mount: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?...So do not worry,...your heavenly Father knows that you need these things.

Jesus doesn't mean that we should not to prepare for the future; what he does mean is that we should not be preoccupied with preparation for the future. To do so would be a lack of trust in God, an emphasis on our own efforts; worry here means unnecessary anxiety. We are to trust God for one day at a time. This is the third thing we learn from this phrase: as we pray "Give us this day..." we show our trust in God for the future and so we are moved to give thanks.

What we need

I have a friend who used to pray that God would give him a red sports car. Is that the kind of thing we should be asking God for when we pray this prayer? What are we to ask God for? This is the final thing we learn from this phrase: what to pray for. Jesus says we are to ask for our daily bread. This means that which is basic, necessary for life. We are not taught to ask for our daily cake. We are to beware of excess, amassing wealth that is not being put to use for others. God sees to our needs, not necessarily our wants. However, when our wills are lined up with his then God will meet the desires of our hearts. This is why it is important to pray the first half of the Lord's prayer before the second, about his name being hallowed, his Kingdom coming, and his will being done. It is when we see God for who he is and desire that his will be done that we will be able to know what are the right things to request for ourselves.

But this request for daily bread is more than for our physical needs. We are also asking God to meet our spiritual needs. Jesus said "I am the bread of life." We are to feed upon Jesus; like eating a loaf of bread, we are to assimilate him into our own beings. How do we do this? "We do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." We are to feed upon Jesus through taking in the Word of God, the Bible. Our spiritual lives are stunted if we do not take in the Word of God daily. This is why the Scripture Union Notes to help us in our Bible reading are called Daily Bread. Then, we also feed upon Jesus in so many other ways through fellowship, service, and especially worship, particularly the Holy Communion, the Eucharist. As we take the bread we are told to "feed upon him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving" In fact, the word "eucharist" means thanksgiving. So, when we pray that God might give us our daily bread, we acknowledge that God knows exactly what we need, physically and spiritually, and our hearts are filled with thanksgiving for all he provides.

Conclusion

"Give us this day our daily bread": when we pray this we show we are dependent upon a God who knows our every need and supplies it when and only when we can use it. For this our hearts are filled with thanksgiving.