You Gave Us This Day Our Daily Bread

In Psalm 37:25, David declares, “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.” As I was reading 1 Kings this past week, I noticed a recurring theme: the Lord not only sustains and strengthens the good, but even the evil, with bread.

For the good, God commanded ravens to feed Elijah, bringing him bread and meat every morning and evening (1 Kings 17:2-6). He provided bread for Elijah, the widow of Zarephath, and her son, sustaining them with cakes (1 Kings 17:8-16). He kept Obadiah and the prophets safe while they were hiding from Ahab and Jezebel by supplying them with bread and water (1 Kings 18:1-4, 13). When Elijah lay under the shade of a broom tree in the desert, God woke him with a freshly baked cake of bread (1 Kings 19:4-8). Even the wicked Ahab, who “eats up God’s people as he eats bread” (Psalm 14:4), was strengthened with bread (1 Kings 21:1-7).

Jesus said that our Father in heaven “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). He gives both the righteous and the unrighteous bread. What a good Father we have—when his children ask for bread, He doesn’t give them a stone (Matthew 7:9), but sustains them with the food that is needful for them (Proverbs 30:8). So, as you pray the Lord’s Prayer in the morning, asking for your daily bread, don’t forget to pray it again at night, saying, “You gave us this day our daily bread.”