Does God Always Provide "Bread"?

Some months ago, my Bible study group was using a series of lessons based on "The Lord's Prayer." I admit that I wrestled with the part that says, "Give us this day our daily bread." The author of our study guide assured us that the God who put the glittering stars in the sky would certainly not fail to give us food. God is committed to caring for us, he said, and our provision is His priority. Even though we may not have had a feast, hadn't we always had food? Perhaps there wasn't a banquet, but wasn't there at least bread? And he quoted Martin Luther who defined bread thus: “Everything necessary for the preservation of this life is 'bread'. This includes food, a healthy body, good weather, a house, a wife, children, good government and peace.” [Unfortunately, I do not have a primary source for this quote, only the repeated assertions of various writers and speakers who may, of course, be simply quoting one another.] I agree that it is fitting to ask for these things; what troubles me is the seeming assumption by many that God then is under obligation to provide them for us.

This raises some questions for me. I just cannot reconcile this expectation with suffering believers in Ethiopia and even school children in my own city who don't have anything to eat on weekends. I went through a brief period in my own life when there simply was not enough to eat, and nothing I could do about it. So, was I not in God's will, not praying correctly, or what? Or was I in company with Paul who had to learn "the secret of being happy . . . when I have enough to eat and when I go hungry, when I have more than I need and when I do not have enough. I can do all things through Christ, because He gives me strength." (Philippians 4:12, 13) We have all these promises about provision, and yet . . .

If the Gospel we preach in America doesn't work in India and Africa and Appalachia, then it's not the Gospel, is it? So how should well-fed, middle-class Americans who really would like to believe that the Lord is their shepherd and they shall not want, interpret the Scriptures?

David, the shepherd boy, was not stupid. He knew that grass doesn't magically appear in a desert place; he had to lead the sheep where there was pasture. He knew he was responsible for the safety and welfare of his flock. When he wrote the shepherd poem (Psalm 23), he was acknowledging the role of God as the shepherd watching over him. "He always goes ahead of me; He is in charge of my need just as I am for my sheep." The key idea, then, in praying for daily bread is not "God, gimme," but "God, take care of me." That does not preclude times of need or even suffering, for the Scriptures don't really say that we'll never be in want. (Just read the Apostle Paul's personal accounts!) They tell us that we shall never be abandoned.

Why do we try so hard to convince those with ample supply that God will never let them down, while those whose supply ran out long ago continue to put their trust in God? We could learn something from them: "A Gospel that makes my personal comfort God's priority fails to take into account the realities of almost every other historical period the Church as experienced."

MaryMartha

You may be interested in another entry, God Sees Sparrows Fall