Step 5: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread” - Living in the Present
The Metaphor of Bread
In the fifth step of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus uses bread as a powerful metaphor for all forms of nourishment, both physical and spiritual.
Jesus used bread as a metaphor. Give us this day our daily bread. Of course, that meant the food that we will need to nourish our bodies. But bread means anything that you could possibly need, food, clothing, shelter, means of travel, the very best means of travel, books to read, in modern times streaming to listen to, means to be surrounded with like-minded persons.
This step reminds us of our dependence on God for all forms of sustenance and nourishment:
Children spontaneously look to their human parents to supply all that they need or want. So it is important that we as children begin to look to our perfect parent for that source of supply.
The Significance of “This Day”
The phrase “this day” emphasizes living in the present moment:
Give us this day our daily bread really means that today, right now, I am expecting not one miracle, but a series of miracles, even a series of series of miracles.
I emphasize that spiritual practice must occur in the present moment, not in some distant future. See another reason why Jesus used bread as a metaphor is that we must eat daily. We must believe in these ideas daily. We must partake of this spiritual food regularly. We must practice these principles in all of our affairs. We can’t just go from Sunday to Sunday because we’ll starve to death if we wait that long.
This focus on “this day” teaches us:
- To be present and engaged with life now
- To expect divine support in this moment, not just in the future
- To practice spiritual principles daily, not occasionally
The One Source of All Supply
A key insight in this step is recognizing God as the one source of all good, rather than seeing our supply as coming from multiple human sources.
People have a tendency to think of their supplies coming from certain particular places or circumstances. For example, from investments or perhaps as a result of the education that we acquire. That where I work is my source of supply. So that in reality, I am my own source of supply.
But, somewhere along the way, we have to begin to see that there is only one source and that source is God and that all other apparent sources are merely channels through which God works to supply us. But that the one source is the one mind, the one presence and the one power.
This understanding brings freedom. The most remarkable thing that happens when we begin to get a feeling for this. When this happens, it doesn’t make any difference what’s happening in a moment or in a situation. A door can close, it can slam in your face and you know that another door will open.
Receiving and Sharing
I caution against a self-centered approach to receiving. If any one of us is living for himself or herself alone, we will not experience our own daily bread or if we’re living just for our families, for those that we love. It is important to become a channel through which God’s abundance flows to others.
Remember the admonition of Jesus when he said if you love the people that you love, you don’t really love (Matthew 5:46). If you’re interested in the people that you love, meaning your own small group, either family or your ethnic group, or just your own religious group, you haven’t really learned to love. It’s when we become channels through whom His mind, His consciousness moves into action to express itself in the world around us without any strains. That’s when God really comes alive in us.
Daily Bread as Spiritual Experience
Expand the concept of “daily bread” beyond material provisions to include spiritual experiences and demonstrations. Your spiritual experience, your most recent demonstration, that event that happened to you today, this week, as a result of prayer, as a result of your need being fulfilled, when your life came alive again, when God was evident in your world again, feeds me, and my faith coming alive in the form of a miracle which becomes food for us.
These experiences nourish us spiritually and strengthen our faith. This is why it’s so important for those of us who believe in the spiritual life to spend more and more time with each other. Do you notice how difficult it is to believe in these things if you spend most of your time with people who do not believe in them and who are not demonstrating them? But when you’re with people who are experiencing miracles, it’s easy to believe in miracles and to actually see them with your mind.
Personal Responsibility
While God is the source of our supply, we must personally partake of what is offered. I’m the only one that can eat for me. No one can save my physical life by taking nourishment for me nor can anyone from you. It also means that no one can save me, my spiritual life except me. The only things humankind has complete control over is our thoughts and feelings.
This emphasizes our individual responsibility to:
- Receive what God is offering
- Practice spiritual principles daily
- Partake of spiritual nourishment regularly
- Take action in applying spiritual truth
The Implication for Our Lives
When we pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are:
- Acknowledging God as the one source of all good
- Living fully in the present moment
- Expecting divine support for today’s needs
- Committing to daily spiritual practice
- Becoming open channels for God’s abundance to flow to others
- Recognizing that spiritual experiences are essential “food”
To summarize: Give us the fullness of life today, the joy of it, the peace of it, the beauty of it, love of it. Give us the ability to go into action in a glorious way to do the things that need to be done by us so that we’ll be transformed into the super incredible beings that we were designed to be and in that action and wisdom we’re transformed to new creation.