Give us our bread for the day according to the day's requirement. — Luke 11:3, NW.

This prayer for daily bread does not mean God treats us like infants and brings the food to us without effort by us and puts it before us on the table or right into our mouths. No; this material bread is not a free, unearned handout. God has surrounded us with all the means for providing us with bread, but we must get busy and work to get it deservedly. There is no room allowed for sponging on our hardworking fellows, but God enforces the rule among his able-bodied children: “If anyone does not want to work neither let him eat.” (2 Thess. 3:10) In keeping with our prayer to him for the daily ration for today, we trust him to provide us physical and mental strength to work and deserve it. Our prayer for just today's bread may put us on a day-to-day basis in our dependence on God for nourishment, but he will fatherlike provide it during our journey through this old world, just as faithfully as he provided manna for the Israelites. W 8/15