Catechism Question 93
What is the fourth request in the Lord’s Prayer and what does it teach us regarding prayer?
The fourth request is “Give us today our daily bread.” In it we learn that we should acknowledge that everything we have is a gift of God and so we pray to God each day for our needs, asking Him to bless us so that we might be a blessing to others, as we look to Jesus, the True Eternal Bread.
Focus and Purpose of this Question
This is the sixth in a series of questions on the Lord’s Prayer. In this question, we ask what is the fourth request in the Lord’s Prayer and what it teaches us. This question follows the same format as the previous questions, asking the words of the request, and what the request teaches us regarding prayer. Additionally, as we saw in the previous questions, when we pray for this specific thing, we are also committing ourselves to work for it. It would not be possible to pray with the attitudes we saw in question 86 and then not labor to see these things done in our own life.
The answer to this question tells us four key things. First, we are to pray with the recognition that everything we have comes as a gift from God. We are praying for our daily bread, the most basic of life’s necessities, and we ask God for this because we recognize that all we have comes from Him. Second, we ask God to meet our daily needs. While we recognize they come from God, we do not take this for granted. We ask Him for the needs we have this day. (Note that this would also mean that prayer is a daily need.) Third, because we are asking for OUR daily bread, we commit ourselves to being a source of blessing to others. When God blesses us, we promise to pass this blessing on to others. Finally, when we pray for God to grant us bread, we are reminded that our deepest and truest need is not for earthly bread, but for the True, Eternal Bread – Jesus. In this request, we are reminded to not simply labor for the earthly and the temporal, but rather for the heavenly and eternal.
Additional Questions:
What is the fourth request Jesus taught us to pray, and what does it teach us?
What do we learn to pray in the fourth request?
What do we learn to pray in the fourth petition?
Scripture References:
Matthew 6:9–13
“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Luke 11:1–4
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
Deuteronomy 8:18
But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
Proverbs 30:8–9
Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
2 Thessalonians 3:10–12
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” 11We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.
Ephesians 4:28
He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
Romans 12:13
Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
1 Timothy 6:18
Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
Deuteronomy 8:3
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Job 23:12
I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.
John 6:35, 48–50
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty… 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.
Questions for Further Discussion:
What does it mean when we say that God is the one who gives us everything? Does this mean that we do not have to work hard?
If God gives us everything, do we have the right to hoard what we have been given?
If I am not generous and willing to share, what does that say about my trust that God really will provide for my daily bread – all of the things I really need?
Is this prayer only about the bread we buy at the store? Or is our food supposed to always remind us of a deeper need?
Additional Information:
This question is based on question 125 of the Heidelberg Catechism and question 104 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Any resources you find on the Heidelberg or Westminster Shorter Catechisms will have a good discussion on this question.
For additional information, see the teaching “Praying For Our Daily Bread” (January 12, 2014), and “The Feast of Fasting” (January 11, 2015).
Suggested Worship Song:
All The Way My Savior Leads Me (Fanny Crosby)
(This song is reminds us that God always meets our needs, and even more beside. It also points us beyond our earthly needs in the final verse, to the day when we will dwell with God forever.)
All the way my Savior leads me
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His faithful mercies?
Who through life has been my guide
Heavenly peace, divinest comfort
Ere by faith in Him to dwell
For I know whate’er fall me
Jesus doeth all things well
All of the way my Savior leads me
And He cheers each winding path I tread
Gives me strength for every trial
And He feeds me with the living bread
And though my weary steps may falter
And my soul a-thirst may be
Gushing from a rock before me
Lo a spring of joy I see
And all the way my Savior leads me
Oh, the fullness of His love
Perfect rest in me is promised
In my Father’s house above
When my spirit clothed immortal
Wings it’s flight through the realms of the day
This my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way