Hello. You’re in charge. Supply me, forgive me, protect me.
These are the essential elements of prayer, as Jesus taught his disciples to pray.
He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’
Jesus’ disciples observed his pattern of going away to spend time in prayer and were inspired to ask him how he did it. Jesus’ answer has ever since become for Christians the manual on prayer, coming down to us as the Lord’s Prayer, which we often recite in the words of the Elizabethan translation rather than the more accurate original version.
The pattern Jesus provides is pretty simple; some of it corresponds to those prayers we utter without thinking: Thanks! Help me! Give me! Forgive me! Save me! Perhaps the line most important to us is “Give us this day our daily bread.”
In those words, Jesus reminds us of the “enough-ness” we enjoy in the life of God, and invites us to stay in the present, neither dwelling on the past nor living in the future. The first often leads to regret and the second to anxiety. God’s abundant life is all around us today. God’s promises are real for this day, in all our circumstances.
Today, take some time to get still. Invite God to make you more aware of God’s field of being – where do you see, hear, sense, smell, taste, touch God’s life?
Then pray with all your heart, "Give me today my daily bread.”
If you feel anxious, ask yourself – what are you worried about running out of?
(Time? Food? Money? Someone’s good will toward you?)
Visualize that in a basket of “not-enough-ness” and hand it off to Jesus, or mentally put it on a shelf. Then take down the basket labeled “Today,” and ask God to show you what’s in it.
I have a feeling it will be more than enough to deal with, more than enough to fill you.
Visualize that in a basket of “not-enough-ness” and hand it off to Jesus, or mentally put it on a shelf. Then take down the basket labeled “Today,” and ask God to show you what’s in it.
I have a feeling it will be more than enough to deal with, more than enough to fill you.
Amen! Let it be so.
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