September 6, 2023

Today's Reading: Luther’s Small Catechism, the Lord's Prayer: Fourth Petition

Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 11:1-27, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

We pray in this petition that God would lead us to…receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. (SC, LP, 4th Petition)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God gives daily bread to everyone, even to the evil. This is the sort of God He is. Daily bread includes anything and everything that has to do with these bodies and this life. The God who created everything still sustains His creation and the people who live in it. 

Sinners, however, always believe that they have gotten everything for themselves. People make themselves into their own gods, and thank themselves for doing what they need to survive. Christians can get sucked into this way of thinking, when we forget that everything we have is a gift. We become selfish with our money and our time. We work and get a paycheck and provide for our needs. Then we expect that if someone does not have what he or she needs, the solution is for that person to work harder. You get what you deserve, after all.

We can only think that way about other people when we forget that God is the giver of all our daily bread. We would not have a job if God did not provide for it. We would not have food and clothing if God did not provide it. We would not have “good weather, peace, health, self-control, a good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like” if God did not give it. Instead, we continue to pray that God would keep us in mind of all His gracious gifts for as long as He gives us life and breath. Even more, in Christ He gives us everything we need to share His divine and eternal life. He is the true bread who has come down from heaven to give life to us and to the world, so that eating and drinking His body and blood, we will never die. We have deserved none of this. “All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me” (Explanation to the First Article of the Creed). 

You can’t earn a gift. And since everything is gift, none of it is earned. Though many do not know that everything they have comes from their Creator, the Holy Spirit has graciously given us faith to know our dear Father through His Son, Jesus. We know where everything comes from, so we rejoice and give thanks to Him. And we also know that God serves those in need through those whom He has blessed with abundance. Freely have we received, freely we give (Matthew 10:8), until the new creation is revealed, in which no one will lack anything necessary to their life. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Give us this day our daily bread, And let us all be clothed and fed. Save us from hardship, war, and strife; In plague and famine, spare our life,  That we in honest peace may live, To care and greed no entrance give (LSB 766:5).

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.