When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, only one of the things He told them to ask for was a physical need—“Give us this day our daily bread.” All the rest of the prayer is praise to God or requests for spiritual gifts or blessings so that we can better please and serve Him. His including a request for material supply recognizes that we live in the natural world and that God wants to supply our physical needs. But it goes deeper than that.
When the Samaritan woman met Jesus at Jacob’s well, He told her that physical sustenance wasn’t enough. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.” Jesus is the bread and water of life, and His presence in our lives is even more important than our physical food and water.
Just as food and water are needed every day to sustain life, so we also need a daily supply of spiritual strength. Just as God expects us to work hard to procure our daily food, He expects us to put effort into procuring our spiritual food, by reading His Word and spending time with Him in prayer, reflection, and meditation.
Thankfully, God wants to give us what we need—and most importantly, He wants to give us Himself. God wants everyone to eat His spiritual food. Going back to the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus was teaching His disciples to not only pray for supply of their daily needs, but also for His Spirit—“the living bread that came down from heaven”—to be present in their lives each day.
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