Faithful Friday 09

You Are Our Daily Bread

Happy Friday Friends!

As usual, I hope this week has held more mercies than messes, but you know the drill: if not, grab that cup of coffee (or glass of wine, if it’s evening) and get settled in for our weekly chat.

This week, I’m going back to one of the basics of our faith: The Lord’s Prayer. I think we often overlook all the rich treasures in this specific piece of scripture and how it has the potential to shape our days. Lately, I've been struck by how one simple line, "give us this day our daily bread,” has become an anchor for my scattered mind.

And because I know how hard it can be to move from a beautiful idea to a real-life practice, I want to walk you through exactly how you can begin using this prayer too, not as a ritual, but as a real conversation with God that meets you right in the middle of your everyday needs.

Let’s dig in!

Daily Bread by Pat Barrett

Waking up to manna, coming to my senses

You meet me in my grumbling, You give me my portion

Keeping my heart steady, You are my portion…

You are our daily bread, You are our daily bread

And we will seek Your face before we seek Your hand

You are our daily bread, You are our daily bread

And we desire You before the Promised Land

The notion of daily bread was not just a random thought Jesus introduced as a way to ask for God’s provision. To the disciples, daily bread would have pointed them back to a time when God faithfully provided food, day after day, for the Israelites in the wilderness. God told the Israelites to go out each day and only gather what they needed. They were also told not to hoard it away or store it for later. God was teaching the Israelites how to depend on Him and trust Him completely to meet their needs for the day ahead.

Jesus is prompting us to do the same thing when we pray the Lord’s Prayer. We are humbly asking God to give us what we need for the day ahead. It’s in that moment we release our death grip on our own plans, our limited energy, and our pressing timelines, and trust Him with it instead. We can’t hoard away time or energy, so we may as well place it in the hands of the One who is actually in control!

There is one more thing that this song highlights that I absolutely adore: the reminder to seek his face before we seek his hand, just as we do in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus tells us to remember who our Father is and to praise him before we ask for what we need for the day!

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be your name.

Thy kingdom come, your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we have also forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power,

and the glory, forever.

Amen

Matthew 6:9-13 KJV

Here’s my favorite thing about this passage: It comes straight from the mouth of Jesus. His disciples asked Him how to pray, and He told them directly.

But I also think this is one of the most overlooked passages in our daily lives. Sure, most of us could probably recite it while rubbing our bellies and patting our heads… but do we actually apply it every day? If you’re anything like me, the answer is no.

Hhhmmmm… Jesus Himself is telling us exactly how to pray… and we’re not doing it daily? Friend, let’s fix that.

In the spring, a group of friends and I read Tyler Staton’s book, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools (which I highly recommend). At the end of each chapter, he includes a section called “Practice,” with advice on how to actually implement his teachings on prayer. In one of these sections, Staton suggests starting your day with the Lord’s Prayer.

He writes: “Every morning, pray the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus’s instructive prayer found in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 is not only the literal application for how the Savior taught us to pray, but it’s also the one documented way we are 100% sure the earliest church prayed liturgically. When I suggest you ‘pray the Lord’s Prayer,’ I don’t mean recite the words as though it were a script. I mean allow those words to thematically move you through a very personal conversation with God” (Staton, p. 205).

This really stood out to me. I had been struggling to find a daily rhythm for prayer. As a right-brained mom, my mind often feels scattered and in overdrive. While I crave rhythms and routines, they take real practice and intention for me. This was exactly what I had been looking for: a routine way to talk to God, especially on days when I don't know what to say, that also connects me to the way Christians have prayed since the earliest times.

This week’s tip really has nothing to do with keeping my house in check. There is no wild hack I’m sharing or even how I am connecting my kids to the Word.

This week is as practical as it gets. What’s working in my house right now? Saying the Lord’s Prayer (in my own voice) every morning.

Sometimes this means, while I am still in bed, wiping the cobwebs from my eyes. Sometimes it’s while I brush my teeth and wash my face. Other days, when I want a little more concentration, I save it for when the boys are already off to school and I am walking the dog.

Here’s the format for making it my own:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name.

This is where I name who God is. I talk to Him about the ways I have seen His character: His power, sovereignty, provision, guidance, peacekeeping, etc. I thank Him for who He is: Creator, Savior, Father, Light of the World, Spotless Lamb. Seeking His face before I seek anything else…

Thy kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

I love this section of my prayer. I dig into how I can step into God’s plans and how I can work towards the goals He has for me. I ask that He keep my eyes and ears open to ways I can help extend His kingdom. I pray that earth will look a little more like heaven today than it did yesterday. I pray that the church does its job in showing the light of Jesus.

Give us our daily bread,

We touched a good bit on this one above, but here is where I lay my needs at his feet. What I need to do today, what I am worried about, what conversations I need to have. And then I ask him to be with me in each one of these things, and he gives me the spiritual strength I need to endure.

and forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors.

This is a time of quiet confession, and most certainly the most difficult part of the prayer for me. It is not always pretty to recognize the places in which I fall short but, when I do it daily, it reminds me how beautiful it is to have a Savior whose grace knows no limit. This section is also a reminder that we are holding grudges over others when our God continuously offers us mercy… let it go!

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

I look back at the things I confessed above and ask that God be with me when I am tempted to re-engage. I ask for protection around my children’s schools, around my family as they travel, etc. I ask that evil plans all around the world be thwarted and that innocent lives caught up in the crossfire be comforted by God.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

This is my way of declaring the truth of who God is, both to my own heart and to His ears. It is so lovely to end a prayer with the reminder of who is in control… forever and in all circumstances!

These are just how my mind processes the Lord’s Prayer and how I make it my own. Use your own circumstances and tweak it to fit your life!

Lord,

We are so thankful that You have given us the gift of Your Word.

That You have given us something tangible to follow when we approach Your Throne of Grace and Glory each day.

We thank You for loving us so well and providing for us in ways we can’t even see.

We know who You are. We know You are in control.

We ask that You help us find more ways to use scripture to help us navigate our world.

We pray that when we do this, our family will see this example, and Your kingdom will expand for generations to come.

Amen.

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ONE FINAL THOUGHT:

I’ll leave you with a passage from Tyler Staton’s book, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, that truly captured my heart. In his beautiful exploration of the Lord’s Prayer, he shows how it reshapes the way we approach God—especially in the middle of our very messy, very real days. This little gem from Chapter 6 says it all:

“Right in the middle of a prayer as cosmic as ‘hallowed be your name,’ as apocalyptic as ‘your kingdom come,’ as contrite as ‘forgive us,’ and as spiritual as ‘deliver us from the evil one,’ Jesus includes the unavoidably practical, circumstantial, and immediate ‘give us our daily bread.’ Prayer, at its simplest and most straightforward, is asking God for help.” (Staton, p. 117).

Isn't that such a grace? In the middle of all that's holy and eternal, He makes space for our ordinary, daily needs. What a gift.

Until Next Week, Blair

References:

Staton, Tyler. (2022). Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools. Zondervan.

Because Motherhood is hard. But you? You’re held.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

{Mathew 5:7}