Last week, I heard an interview with a highly successful entrepreneur in California.  She grew up in a “poor” family in the segregated South.  The reason I put poor in quotation marks is that, for many of her growing up years, she never knew they were poor!  There were eleven kids, but they never lacked food, clothing, or emotional support.  In fact, she said, even with their large family, there was always extra to share with others.

Her story reminded me that we can live with one of two basic outlooks:  abundance or scarcity.  As an economics major, I learned about scarcity; but as a theologian, I am increasingly aware of abundance.  God promises to supply all our needs, and we often have more at our disposal than we realize.  That is not to make light of the fact that many people often struggle and suffer from a dearth of resources.  But it sets the stage for Jesus’ next statement on how we are to pray:  “Give us today our daily bread.”

One thing to notice is that everything we have is a gift.  When we pray, “Give us…,” that suggests that what we have–even in daily provision–is something we receive.  That is not to say we don’t work for it.  Genesis 2 makes it clear that work is part of the created order–it is part of how God has made the world to operate.  But even the ability to work is a gift from God.  In Matthew 5:45, Jesus suggests that even the circumstances that enable us to prosper by our efforts are a gift–it is God who makes the sun shine and the rain fall, not us!

Cutting to the chase, when we pray “Give us today our daily bread,” we are saying several things.  We are saying that we acknowledge that all we have is from God.  We are saying that we trust God for that provision–we will work, but not obsess over it.  Finally, we are saying that we desire contentment.  Notice that the prayer is for daily provision–what we need right now–not ten or fifty years from now.  In some ways, Jesus’ petition sets the stage for what Paul writes in I Timothy 6:  “Godliness with contentment is great gain.  If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”

Being well provided for is not necessarily about having a little or a lot–something that California entrepreneur could attest to.  It is about making the most of what we do have–and of seeing what we have, rather than what we don’t have.