Give us this day our daily bread.
-Matthew 6:11

Jesus gives us a simple, yet profound example of a way to pray when he shares the words of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew. During Lent, we are invited to live simply and put our trust in God to meet our everyday needs. What are those basic needs that we overlook because we are so concerned with chasing after what everyone else has?

Part of Jesus' 40 day journey that we remember during this Lenten season included temptation. In his encounter with the Temptor he responds by saying, Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.  -Matthew 4:4

How can we sustain ourselves daily with the Word of God?

Some of the temptations Jesus faced during this time may seem very far from the temptations we deal with today. I think that what we face today maybe even harder to resist, because the things we face are sometimes faceless and nameless. Sometimes we make judgments about the choices others make without understanding their situations. Sometimes we compare ourselves to the lives of our friends and we feel like what we have isn't enough.

As we journey through this Lenten season together, may we find the courage to face those temptations and fears, name them, understand them, and seek to mend and ask forgiveness for them, so that we might be freed from the fears and insecurities that rule us.

Prayer for Today

Dear God, give us our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive others who do us wrong. In Jesus' Name, Amen.