Responding to last week’s post on “your will be done” someone made the comment “It looks like you think that God doesn’t care about our decisions.”  My offending remark had to do with a friend who wants to buy a house that his wife is not equally enamored of. My conclusion was that, in some respects, it might not really matter whether they moved into this or that or another house. Of course, sometimes God has a specific house or spouse or job for us. Overall, however the Father is more concerned with the process of decision making. Are his children displaying the character of Jesus? Is this brother showing love, patience, surrender? Is he listening for God’s word about righteousness more than he is for a word about living quarters?

The more I’ve thought about these questions, the more it makes sense that Jesus’ next petition in his model prayer is, “Give us today our daily bread.” The Father wants to provide for us so that we can fulfill the desire to do his will, which Jesus says is to be our very sustenance. It is a profoundly simple thought that the measure of that provision is daily bread: basic nourishment that keeps us alive. Food that satisfies, that is not aimed at our appetites, but that deals with our true hunger.

Second, it is daily bread. I recently found myself with a ton of to-dos on my list. At a certain point, I began to fret, even though the list’s deadlines stretched over a couple of weeks. In my fretting, the Lord brought me back to the moment. My first thought was about my mortality. I might not even live to complete half the tasks before me. My second was more comforting: What was the Father doing in, through, and for me today? Taking time to ask and answer that question was what would bring both peace and fruitfulness.

Of course, there’s more to say about this simple prayer. When we translate the phrase back into Hebrew or Aramaic, the word for daily is “chuk.” It’s the same word used in Proverbs 30:8, “Give me neither poverty nor wealth, but only the bread for this day.” The root of chuk implies something that is ordained. This construct is fascinating. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us.” Usually asking for something in this way is a request focussed on me and my desires. And yet what we ask for – which is today’s sustenance that God himself measures out for us – perfects our desires. “Give us what you think we need.”

This is a prayer that the Father delights to answer, and the Scriptures tell us that his answer is not stingy, sparing, reluctant, or begrudging. He gives “immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). It is his “good pleasure to give us the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). If I consider what this means, a few specific things stand out.

First of all, the best and highest provision of the Father is himself – his own presence, his own voice, his own . In a review of my life as a believer, I have seen that the times where I was most in need of counsel, most challenged by circumstances, or struggling with my own weakness were the occasions for the greatest sense of God’s nearness. Most often, these experiences didn’t involve being told what to do, where to go, or even how to behave. One time, it was simply a promise at a time of seeming failure: “Your work will be rewarded.” At other moments, it was a palpable, powerful sense of the Holy Spirit’s being with me despite my sins and my trials.

Second, daily bread is a provision of faith. As a believer in Jesus, my believing is generally not up to par. I need the same confidence and trust that are in God himself. I need faith that corresponds to my life right now. Like the manna that was the Lord’s daily bread for Israel in the desert, faith grows stale if not used today. Tomorrow, I will receive what I require tomorrow. God’s gift of faith when I was 25 and a single man is not the gift he gives me at 63 with two teenaged children and a different job and service. I am older, more mature, and just as dependent as ever. Lord, I believe – help my unbelief.

Third, the daily provision of grace. I believe that grace is God’s ability and power to do in and through us what we cannot do ourselves. Grace is everything from God’s first words, “Let there be light” to the natural and spiritual gifts that he gives to human beings to the best offering of his son for our salvation. So, when I am looking for daily bread to do his will, I ask what the Father is empowering me to do today. Is it to love my wife, serve my family or his people, or my neighbor, or the needy? Is it to curb my tongue or speak up where he calls me to? Are there things that I am doing for which he is not giving grace? As it was for Elijah in the wilderness (1Kings 19:8), whatever God gives us is more than sufficient to accomplish what he wants for our lives.

Of course, daily bread can be many other portions of manna. It can be various and sundry expressions of the Holy Spirit that are ours as God’s children. It can even be actual direction about what to do or how to live (and for my friend, perhaps where to live). In the end, our part is to ask for daily bread, to receive it, and to walk out the Father’s plan in his strength.

But what about whether God cares about where my friend lives (or whom I marry, or what college I attend, etc.)? It could be that the person who objected to my comment is facing his own dilemma about the Father’s will. When we struggle with our call to trust and obey it is easy to distract or deceive ourselves about our own hearts. We have so many ways to bake our own daily bread. How many times do we hear or say about a pretty shaky decision we’re making, “I have peace about it.” But when someone challenges our claim, we will have none of it. How often do we feed ourselves on the thought that if we are good boys and girls God will give us what we want? – if my friend loves his wife well enough, then “Bingo,” it’s time to pack up and move. Our baking skills are indeed well-honed.

The questions for us are, will we slow down enough to eat at the Father’s table? Will we take the Lord’s offer to eat what is good and satisfy ourselves with abundance (Isaiah 55:2) Will we confess that we are often trusting in other gods to satisfy us? Will we shun the junk foods of self-esteem, money, self-gratification, independence, career? Will we find safety from ourselves by bringing a brother or sister into our lives and submitting our desires and purposes to their counsel?

The Father promises bread for his children from his own house; let’s not go hungry eating from the world’s garbage pails.