Introduction

We are so glad you are joining us for these daily prayer posts. Throughout these weeks we have been listening to the prayers of the Bible and learning from them how to pray. This week we turn our attention to the model prayer Jesus gave His disciples when they asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” (Luke 11:1)

Each devotion will take five to seven minutes of your time.

1. We will look at an insight from those who know something important about prayer.
2. We will listen to Jesus as He prays “The Lord’s Prayer.”
3. We will reflect, asking the same four questions each day that invites us to look and listen with intent.
4. And we will pray, for it is in praying that we learn to pray. And it is in praying that the Spirit changes our hearts.

May we encourage you to grab a notebook, a journal, something to write on as you do each prayer guide. Yes, it will add a few minutes to the time it takes to do the devotion, and it will also deepen your experience and shape your walk with God for years to come.

Look

Note that we are to pray for “our daily bread.” There is intercession for other Christians here as well as petition for oneself. And “bread,” man’s staple diet in both the ancient and the modern worlds, stands here for all of life’s necessities and the means of supplying them. Thus, “bread” covers all food; so the prayer is for farmers and against famine.

J.I. Packer, Praying the Lord’s Prayer

Listen

The U.S. headlines recently have focused on the disruption the Coronavirus is creating in the nation’s food supply chain. When food processing plants in the Midwest shut down it translates to shortages on the grocery shelves. We don’t often think about what goes into getting “bread” on the table, but it seems the Lord would want us mindful of this very thing on a daily basis.

As the prayer turns from God’s glory to our needs, may we be reminded of at least these two things:

1. There is no food if there is no soil, rain, sunshine etc.
2. There is no food if there are not those who work the soil, pray for rain and sunshine.

Matthew 6:9-13

⁹ Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread,
¹² and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.
*For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.
Amen.

Reflect

1. Having read the Word, sit silently for a minute and give God’s Word a moment to settle within you.
2. Re-read the verses slowly and write down some thoughts that resonate with you.
3. Ask the Spirit to help you see the deeper longings, desires or motives in your heart that those thoughts are pointing to. (for example: you may write down, “we are to ask “daily” for the food we need.” The Spirit reminds us that we are a dependent people, the very nutrients we need to survive we can’t “make” ourselves…but God provides.
4. What thoughts, emotions and desires stir in your heart as you remember all the parts of God’s “supply chain” that gets “bread” on our tables?

Pray

Throughout the week we’ll pray “The Lord’s Prayer” together, emphasizing a different line each day.

⁹Our Father in heaven, 
hallowed be your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread,

Pause here and pray for all the work and workers that make our meals each day possible.

¹² and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.
*For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.
Amen.

*Some of the earliest manuscripts do not contain this line.