It seems like God's favorite food is bread. He's always talking about it. “Man does not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3). “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). Bread as the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:23-24). Did he own stock in a bakery or something? Or did he just love to use bread as a metaphor. The kind of bread mentioned in this verse has been argued about for a while. The word translated as “daily” is the Greek word “epiousios.” The problem is that this word is found only two places of all of recorded history. Once here in Matthew in the Lord's Prayer and once in Luke ...in the Lord's prayer. (At one point, epiousios was thought to have been found on a 5th century grocery shopping list, but it turned out to be a mistranslation.) Early church leaders interpreted epiousios as “supersubstantial” which would mean that the bread spoken of here is one in the same as the bread taken during the Holy Communion. Thus when you pray this prayer you are asking for spiritual fulfillment.
To you, respected early church leaders, I humbly respond in the immortal words of the greatest linguist of our generation, Chad Ochocinco and say, “child, please!” Man should not live by bread alone, but without bread, he dead. God cares about your physical needs. Jesus always fulfilled a physical need before he pulled out the spiritual teachings. And it goes beyond having enough to eat. God wants you to have more than just the bare essentials.
The issue is what kind of “bread” are you asking for? How often do you pray like this: “Our Father which art in Heaven, give us this day our daily Chevy Camaro Coupe with a 6.2 liter 426-horsepower V8 engine finished in a Rally Yellow paint job. Amen.” I'm not saying you shouldn't ask God for nice things, but this isn't a celestial claw crane game where if you play it right you win a toy. Remember all that godly alignment we've been doing the past few weeks? Before you ask for more stuff, be thankful for what you have and you will see it multiplied. You could also try to convince God about how quickly you can get to church in that Camaro.
If your grocery list unlocks the secrets of Christianity:
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