At Confirmation last week I asked the students, "what are the two most basic prayers?" It took a while and some hints, but eventually they got it: "please" and "thank you." We concluded together that our prayers should include as many "thank yous" as "pleases."
Supplication can be simplified to the "please" part of our prayers. It's interesting to note that the word supplication comes from the same root word as "supply." God supplies us with all our daily needs - this is what we pray for when we pray for daily bread in the Lord's prayer. As Luther describes, "daily bread" includes "everything in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property an upright spouse, uprights children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like" (The Lord's Prayer in Luther's Small Catechism). That's quite a lot that God supplies! I'm sure you could add to the list.
Luther also writes that God gives these things "without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we ask in this prayer that God cause us to recognize what our daily bread and to receive it with thanksgiving." Take some time to today to recognize the daily bread God supplies, and give thanks.
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