Most Gracious God:
You have told us to pray and to ask that you would give us our daily bread. You have told us that we should ask, seek and knock, that whoever would ask would receive, whoever would seek would find, and to whomever knocks the door would be opened. You have told us that we should not worry about what we will wear, what we will eat, and from where our needs would be met. You said that God knows that we need these things and that it is his good pleasure to give them to us. But you told us to ask.
Sometimes we do not ask--many times we give our prayer time to spiritual matters, to sin and redemption, to asking for mercy. We ask for peace in our hearts. You certainly desire these prayers. We often think that we are being pious and spiritual and attending to things that truly matter when we leave the things of earth aside in our prayers.
And yet, you have desired to be a part of every part of our lives. You have knit yourself to the mundane as well as the holy. You have made the ordinary holy by consecrating simple bread, bringing new life through simple water, and filling us with you spirit through the moving of simple air. You care about our meals, our bills, our car repairs, our pets, our to-do lists, our busy schedules, our children and grandchildren. You care about the little things, because life is made up of little things, and you came to bring us abundant life.
So, Lord, we ask you to meet our needs. Transform our desires so that our desire is to have our needs met and not to be given to ever increasing desire. But feed us in every way. And give us hearts that care about the needs of our neighbors, whether they live next door or on the other side of the earth. For you hear their prayers, as well, and you call us to be the answer to our prayers and theirs. Amen.
Amen
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