“Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11). We may or we may not choose to place our trust in and rely upon our Heavenly Father, but there is no doubt that we rely upon His mercy and grace far, far more than we are willing or able to acknowledge or admit. “For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?” (Mosiah 4:19). Compared to the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, all of us are equally destitute and pathetically helpless. We pray “give us this day,” because we acknowledge that we are all more or less in the same boat, at the end of the day. We might like to think that those with more wealth or power or influence are somehow shielded from the tragedies and crises of life on Earth, but thinks like cancer and loneliness and hurricanes and infidelity are no respecters of bank accounts or social media followers. Whether we like it or not, at the end of the day, we are all more or less like the Children of Israel wandering in the desert with no hope of finding anything to eat except the unexpected and undeserved gift of the manna, or daily bread. We have to pray this day for our bread because no amount of yesterday's preparation or financial planning or personal righteousness or personal alliance will absolutely guarantee that the destroying angel won't turn up today and throw our whole life into the blender. Job lost his children, all his possessions, his reputation, his friends, the support of his wife, his good looks and his health all in a single day. We had better believe that he prayed for the gift of daily bread on that day and all of the days that follow. God wants us to exercise our agency and try things out according to our understanding and desire, but He doesn't want us to try and confront all that love will throw at us all on our own. He is waiting in the wings each and every moment of each and every day, hoping that we will pray once more on this day for the daily bread He can give us to sustain us. And what is that bread? “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35). To pray for our daily Bread is to pray for our Savior to be by our side to help and support us as we navigate the challenges that change constantly so that we must lean on our Savior from moment to moment. I hope we never decide that it is better to go a day or a week or years starving from hunger because we refuse to plead with our Father to give us our daily Bread. We may choose to wade through trials and tribulations in misery and sorrow on our own, but if we would only ask, our Father will give us His Son to free us from our self-imposed captivity.
