Asking for "our daily bread" in the Model Prayer covers far more than food. Bread, the staff of life, stands for all God's providence: food, water, air, shelter, clothing, and everything else needed to sustain life, which He supplies second by second. Jesus likely alludes to the manna God gave Israel each day in the wilderness, which could not be stored overnight and so tested the people's trust in Him. The Greek word epiousion is found only here, and scholars debate whether it means necessary, daily, for the coming day, or for the future. Early church fathers took it as bread for the day ahead, which fits Jesus' call in Matthew 6:25-34 not to worry about physical needs but to seek God's Kingdom and righteousness first, trusting that He knows and meets those needs. Physical bread also has a spiritual counterpart. Deuteronomy 8:3, which Jesus quoted when tempted by Satan, teaches that man lives by every word from God's mouth, so the request includes daily instruction from His Word, such as the Bereans' daily searching of Scripture. Finally, Jesus is Himself the Bread of Life (John 6). Those who continually feed on Him, by learning, obeying, imitating, and growing, abide in Him and receive eternal life. Praying for daily bread therefore asks God for full nourishment of body, mind, and spirit, since the only sure, life-giving sustenance comes from Him.

God provides all our needs at exactly the right time, with more than enough for all who obey Him. When Israel complained of hunger on the fourth Sabbath of the count to Pentecost, God gently answered by raining bread from heaven. Each person gathered an omer according to need, and he who gathered much had nothing left over while he who gathered little lacked nothing. The daily quota tested whether they would walk in God's law, and on the sixth day they gathered twice as much so that the seventh-day Sabbath could be kept. We have a small part in collecting our daily bread of life; God supplies it, but we must gather it. Through the manna God revealed His glory as the only One who can provide for every need, and He opened the door to true peace, rest, and communication with Him in the time He has declared holy. The manna pictures the bread of life that leads to rest and refreshment. A year later, Israel despised the manna and craved the foods of Egypt, and this attack on what God had given to sustain them brought a plague, because to despise His provision is to despise God Himself. Longing for the old days leads to contention and draws us away from the thanksgiving that leads to God.