September 26, 2009

Here is today's prayer:

Precious Lord, today the word hunger has been on my mind.

As I think back on the meals that I was able to partake in yesterday, I give thanks for the blessing that those meals have been to me. I give thanks for their nourishment. I give thanks for the people I was able to eat with. As I look forward to today, I give you thanks for the meals that are already before me.

As I eat and give thanks, I can't help think about the millions of people that have only one meal a day. And as I continue to eat and plan meals, I cannot get the image out of my head of the millions more that will have no meal at all today. Gracious God, my heart aches for these folks today. I call on you to provide for those in need. Teach us how we can be a part of feeding those who are hungry. Pour out your Holy Spirit into the lives of those who control the food and prevent it from getting to the hungry. Soften their hearts and help them, and us, to feed the world.

Physical food is not the only hunger on my mind today, my Lord. There is another hunger that we all are prone to suffer. It is the hunger that your holy scriptures remind us of when we read that we "do not live on bread alone." Help us in our hunger for you. Help us to seek you out in our hunger and desire for spiritual nourishment. Let us feast on your Word and at your table and be nourished and transformed. We ask these things, not for our own selfish sake, but for the sake of the one who lived and died and rose again; that all honor and glory of our nourishment and growth might be yours, both now and forever. Amen.