Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.
If you think, in this verse, that Jesus is just talking about getting your "3 square meals a day," you're not thinking - or praying - deeply enough.
Remember when Jesus fed the 5000? A miracle of "daily bread," yes. But what did Jesus say to that crowd when they came searching for him the next day?
"Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed."
He rebuked the crowd for simply looking to fill their stomaches again (and for free) because they were missing the much greater lesson:
- God is actually always present to feed every need, solve every problem, cure every ill, redeem every sin, raise every deadened life to purpose and fulfillment.
So we too need to wake up and listen to this rebuke!
This verse of Jesus' Prayer is talking about so much more than just asking God to meet our daily human needs. Jesus is asking us to understand that the real "daily bread" we should be praying to receive is the Bread of Life, the Christ!
"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."
- When the Bread of Life - the Christ - comes to your conciousness, it will feed your heart, your soul, your thought with the ideas, intuitions, inspirations that you specifically and individually need to live and prosper.
This Bread of Life is so much more than something you'd eat for lunch. It is your literal companioning with God, your individual communion with God, your at-one-ment with God, your "taste" of God, your actual experience of God!
And this True Bread feeds your need with an awakening! An awakening to understand that your life is His - Spirit's - likeness! That, as far as God is concerned, you are already complete, that the True Bread is already present with you, already feeding and nourishing you, abundantly satisfying you with the Love of God, with your individual experience of Him, with your spiritual sense awakening to what Divine Love has already prepared for you: fulfillment, completeness, satisfaction.
This True Bread is the Christ, Emmanuel, God-with-us. And God's Love for you is always made manifest in practical ways. But it is the cause - the Christ - that we must seek first, not the effect - the loaves and fishes.
And the cause is the Bread of Life, the Christ, Truth, our Redeemer.
"Give us this day our daily bread."
Yes! give us grace - the unconditional love of God - today! feed all famished affections - and we know Your Grace will also feed all the stomachs that go with them.
