Daily Bread

Christmas time has come and past and a lot of people wish that the season of giving would continue.  It is something about getting and especially receiving gifts that makes us all feel good inside.  We all wish we could celebrate and have fun every day.  But, imagine if that could actually happen, wouldn't that be amazing to wake up every day with gifts under a tree and a huge family meal?  This dream seems to good be true.  In my last blog post I talked about Jesus' prayer for the invitation of God's kingdom here on earth.  Following this is a stand-alone phrase, that has its own verse, that say's "Give us today our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11).  This verse has so much to say on its own and I would like to write what this verse means for us to pray.
In the original language the verse reads: To;n avj;rton hJmw:n to;n ejpiouvsion do;V hJmi:n shvmeron.  Translated to English this verse would read, "The bread of ours the daily you gave (!) to us today."  What I would like to mention from this verse is just the word ejpiouvsion that is translated "daily."  This word shows that a dream of Christmas everyday could be a possibility.  Except here it talks about our need for "bread."  A scholar Ralph Earle says there are 4 meanings for daily: 1) necessary for existence; 2) for today; 3) for the following day; and 4) for the future.  So, this word has deep meaning of existence for everyday!
Now, some may translate this verse to say that God provides for all of our needs such as bills, money, food, etc.  Yet, this “bread” that creation is given may just be spiritual.  Bread would have been a resemblance to the Passover meal when God brought Israel out of exile and for today it resembles the price that Christ paid on the cross.  In both cases an offering of bread because of the salvation we have from God is revealed.  In other words, after we pray for God’s kingdom and will to be done, which is revealed in the previous verse, we then pray for salvation from exile and from forgiveness for our sins.
Although this verse has no reference to having communion daily, John Wesley saw importance in it.  Wesley, during his time at Oxford, took communion daily because he wanted to remember the sacrifice that Christ had made on the cross.  A better example is how John Wesley prayed to God daily.  Wesley sought out God every day to provide for his spiritual needs.  These may be very broad examples from one man’s life, but I see them as ways that one person sought out God’s calling to daily come to Him so that God can provide our spiritual needs.
Kneeling before God and asking Him to provide for our daily needs may get hard.  It may feel like God is not providing for our daily needs, or we may think we only need to pray this prayer once so that God just has to provide for us now.  Yet, I believe that we must have faith and come before God every day.  Prayer has meaning and all of creation has the freedom and the choice to come before the God of the universe to pray that His kingdom may come and that salvation and God’s Holy Spirit may come to us, His creatures, so that we may live out a kingdom life.