Starved Spirits, Sorrowful Souls

Give us today our daily bread. Matthew 6:11 (NIV)

We can be intelligent, healthy, rich, and religious and it would be meaningless without bread. The most pious saint is still dependent on bread. So this prayer is an admission of a great need; the need for bread and it is all-inclusive. No man can eat intelligence. We cannot eat money; we cannot eat the Bible and survive.

The implication in this prayer is clear: we are dependent creatures. We need something that we are incapable of furnishing for ourselves. The tractor moves down the furrows, we plant the seed, but what purpose would it serve if there was no life in the seed? Someone has put life in the seed, life in the soil, and life in the earth. Even though we are co-laborers with God in His work, we are still dependent upon Him and His creation. We know this because if the life in the seed and soil dies, we also die.

It is only when we realize and recognize the nature of our relationship to God are we able to even hope to understand our own life or to deal adequately with life