Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

Scripture: Psalm 37:18–29; Exodus 16:4–5

Kobe Union Church

February 1, 2026

Preacher: Rev. Mark Bartsch

We continue our study through the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer that is not so much a formula but a formation for those willing to follow Jesus. We have spent the last three weeks looking upward and outward. We began with “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6:9). We recognized that our God is both intimately close—a Father—and infinitely holy—set apart. We moved to “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). This was an act of surrender, a declaration that God’s agenda is better than my agenda (and we all have agendas).

But now, the prayer shifts to our personal needs. After we have acknowledged God’s glory and submitted to His will, Jesus invites us to bring our needs. “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). At first, this feels like the “easy” part of the prayer. It’s the part where we bring our needs to God. It is a prayer of petition or supplication. But if we look closer, this petition is perhaps the most difficult to live out consistently. Why? Because it strikes at the very heart of the human condition: our desire for control.

This prayer is not just a request for food or shelter. It is a spiritual discipline of dependence. It all comes down to one simple but challenging question God asks us: “Do you trust me?” I have done some rock climbing in my life, both as a climber and as the belayer (the one holding the rope). And both roles teach the same lesson. At some point in a climb, you reach a place where you cannot move forward unless you lean back. You have to put your weight into the rope, often kicking out away from the safety of the rock.

You can say you trust it, but until you actually lean back, you are still clinging to the rock, exhausting yourself. The moment you lean back, the rope tightens, and you realize you were being held all along. If there is any message I have for today, it is this: Do not be afraid to lean back when God has your rope.

I’ll be honest with you—I have wrestled with this verse. I’ve had to ask myself, "What does it mean to pray for daily bread when I have never actually been hungry?" For many of us, praying “Give us this day our daily bread” is almost a given. Most of us woke up this morning not worrying about what we would eat but thinking about what we want to eat.

I did not grow up well off. I remember my parents struggling over bills, not knowing which ones to pay or how to make cuts. There was stress and at times concern about finances. But there was always a meal on the table. It wasn’t always steak, but it was always enough. It was always healthy.

So what does it mean to pray for daily bread when some of us might actually need to eat a little less bread, not more? It means this prayer is not primarily about scarcity. It is about dependence. It is about remembering that even what feels guaranteed is still a gift. The danger for many of us is not that we will go hungry, but that we will forget who feeds us.

The Theology of Dependence

In our world, independence is celebrated. We are encouraged to be self-sufficient, to plan ahead, and to secure our future. But the economy of the Kingdom of God runs on a different logic. To pray “Give us this day our daily bread” is to admit that we are not the ultimate providers of our own lives.

Even Jesus, when His disciples were worried about His physical hunger, pointed them toward a deeper source of strength. He told them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34). He was showing us that being "fed" isn't just about calories; it’s about being fueled by God’s presence and purpose. If we are doing our own thing, we will always be hungry. But if we are doing His will, we find a satisfaction that the world can't give.

Psalm 37 speaks directly into this kind of faith: “The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever; they are not put to shame in evil times; in the days of famine they have abundance.” (Psalm 37:18–19)

Notice what the psalm promises. It does not promise ease or excess. It promises that God knows, God sees, and God sustains His people, even in hard times. Jesus does not teach us to pray, “Give us this year our annual income,” or “Give us enough security so we never have to ask again.” That is the logic of the rich fool who stored grain in bigger barns (Luke 12:16–21). Be careful of anyone Jesus calls a fool. Instead, Jesus narrows the prayer to today.

Psalm 37 reinforces that wisdom: “Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.” (Psalm 37:16) Why? Because trust is not about how much we have. It is about whom we are trusting. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5) Again and again the Bible comes down to trust.

The Manna Test

To understand what Jesus is teaching here, we need to look back to the wilderness. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them.’” (Exodus 16:4)

This was the Manna Test. God provided exactly what the people needed—but not in a way that allowed them to stop trusting Him. They could gather enough for one day. If they tried to hoard it, Scripture says: “It bred worms and stank” (Exodus 16:20). The problem was never God’s provision. The problem was fear. Some of our lives “stink” today—not because God has failed us, but because we are trying to save up for tomorrow what God has given us for today. We are trying to store the manna instead of trusting God for His continued provision.

Where We Place Our Confidence

When we fail the Manna Test, it’s usually because we’ve shifted our trust away from the Provider and started trusting ourselves. The Psalmist reminds us where our true strength lies: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Psalm 20:7) In the ancient world, horses and chariots were the ultimate symbols of security and power. Today, we have our own "chariots"—our savings accounts, our resumes, our health, or our backup plans. There is nothing wrong with having these things, but there is everything wrong with trusting in them. Chariots break down. Horses grow weary. But the Lord remains.

Psalm 37 names this truth with the wisdom of a lifetime: “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread” (Psalm 37:25). That is not denial. That is testimony. It is the voice of someone who has lived long enough to look back and say, "God has been faithful."

The Nature of Trust

Trust is not passive. Psalm 37 says: “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act” (Psalm 37:5). I was thinking about the nature of trust this week. I was waiting at a crosswalk across from my school and there was an elderly lady standing there. It's a busy road and cars fly down that stretch. Well, the pedestrian light turned green, and without even looking at the oncoming cars, she stepped right onto the road. Do you know what happened? Nothing happened. The cars coming toward the lights hit their brakes, and she and I crossed without incident.

That happens hundreds of thousands of times a day. Why? Because she trusted the system. She trusted that the red light meant the cars would stop. Actually, it is news when they don’t stop. She trusted the strangers behind the wheels of those machines. Life in a civilized society would be impossible without this kind of baseline trust. If we can trust a traffic light and a stranger in a car, how much more can we trust the Word of the Living God?

Trust in the Midst of Doubt

Trust does not mean the absence of doubt. In Mark 9, Jesus meets a father whose child is tormented by an evil spirit. When the disciples cannot heal the boy, Jesus steps in. After asking a few questions, he tells the man the truth: “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

The father replies, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Jesus does not chastise the man for his honesty; instead, he heals his son. That is a “daily bread” prayer.

In the same way, when Peter tried to walk on water and then took his eyes off the Lord and began to sink, “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him” (Matthew 14:31). Even when our trust falters, the Lord does not.

Think about how many times the people of Israel doubted God as they walked in the wilderness. And yet, it is recorded that every single day—on days when they were faithful and days when they were grumbling—God provided manna.

The Bread of Life

If we stop at physical bread, we miss the heart of the prayer. It is about trust. When we pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are ultimately asking for Jesus Himself. He made this clear when He said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

When we pray this, we are not just asking God to solve our financial future or fill our fridge. We are asking Him to be the very thing that sustains us. We are asking Him to be part of our lives today—to be the air we breathe and the strength we lean on. Both physically and spiritually.

Fifteen years ago, at this exact time—at the end of January—I came to Kobe with Stephanie, and I did not have a job. I applied at eikaiwa schools, and do you know what they told me? “You have too much experience.”

I honestly did not know what I was going to do. And then Pastor Gerard asked me to preach. Around that same time, Rie Saito asked me if I was looking for a job. I told her that I was, and she recommended me to teach at Keimei.

God provides. One of God’s names is YHWH Jireh—God the Provider. I don’t know what you need this morning, but why not ask the Lord to provide for you?

And now, we move from prayer to practice. Communion is the "daily bread" prayer made visible. In a moment, we will receive bread we did not bake and a cup we did not earn. It is a reminder that we are not self-sustaining people. We live by grace.

Some of us come to this Table full. Some of us come hungry. Some of us come trusting easily today, and others come praying, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” But the promise remains the same.

As the psalmist testifies, “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread” (Psalm 37:25). Today, God once again meets His people with what they truly need.

So as we come to the Table, I invite you to release tomorrow into God’s hands. Lay down the fear you may be storing. And receive, with open hands and open hearts, the Bread of Life—Jesus Christ, given for you.

Let's pray.

Discussion Questions

1. Control vs. Trust -  When you hear the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” what areas of your life are hardest to release control over? What does “leaning back into the rope” look like for you right now?

2. The Manna Test Today- The Israelites were given enough for one day and warned against hoarding. What modern “manna” do we tend to store up out of fear, and how can that affect our trust in God?

3. Trust with Doubt -  The father in Mark 9 prayed, “I believe; help my unbelief.” How does this kind of honest prayer shape the way we think about faith, trust, and coming to God as we are?