There’s something beautiful and challenging about the next part of the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us today…” Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not “eventually.” Just today.

We live in a world that constantly pulls us out of the present. Our minds are often anywhere except right here. But when Jesus teaches us to pray, He reminds us that God works in the now. God wants to meet you in this moment, not in the what-ifs of the future or the what-could-have-beens of the past. Author Dallas Willard reminds us, “God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are.” Today is where He is active. 

There’s an old saying, “Be where your feet are.” The problem is that modern life makes that increasingly difficult. Our phones constantly invite us to think about another place, another person, another problem, or another possibility. But God’s presence is in the moment you are in. One researcher estimated that the average person spends nearly half of their life thinking about something other than what they are currently doing. In other words, even when we’re sitting in a meeting, eating dinner with our family, talking to a friend, or praying, our minds are often somewhere else. Maybe that’s why so many people feel exhausted. We’re trying to carry three days at once. We carry yesterday with its regrets and disappointments. We carry tomorrow with its uncertainties and fears. Then we wonder why today feels so heavy. But Jesus offers us a different way. He wants us to live in today.

Notice that He didn’t teach us to pray, “Give us this month our daily bread.” He didn’t say, “Give us this year what we need.” He taught us to pray one day at a time. God gives grace in daily portions. But we don’t like that. We want certainty and guarantees. We want to know how everything is going to work out. But faith requires willingness to trust God with information we do not have.

But even today can still be too big to keep us present in the God moments of our life. So many different things happen in 24 hours that it is easy to be thinking about later today instead of right now. How many times have you opened your Bible while thinking about your schedule? How many times have you started praying only to realize five minutes later that your mind wandered somewhere else? How many moments of beauty, joy, and gratitude have been lost because you were mentally living somewhere other than where God had placed you?

It’s probably harder to be present now than ever before because of the presence of technology. Researchers studying parent-child interactions have found that when parents become absorbed in their phones, communication with their children decreases significantly. They have even coined a term for this: “technoference”—technology interfering with human relationships. The same principle is true in our relationship with God. God is always present. The question is whether we are.

Be Present

Being present in prayer helps us recognize God’s goodness in the ordinary moments of life. The breath in our lungs. The food on our table. The strength to get through the next task. These are all answers to the prayer: “Give us today…”

What would it look like, I mean really look if you spent each moment of your day practicing the presence of God? In her book, Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison Warren took this challenge. She started trying to experience God’s presence in the ordinary moments like making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for her kids, folding laundry, and even moments when she could not find her keys. We like to think of God’s presence as big moments. We tend to believe we need grand gestures, but we don’t. Like the Psalmist said, “This is the day the Lord has made.”

Here is what Warren discovered, “What I in my weakness see as another monotonous day in a string of days, God has given as a singular gift… Christ didn’t redeem my life theoretically or abstractly—the life I dreamed of living or the life I think I ideally should be living. He knew I’d be in today as it is, in my home where it stands, in my relationships with their specific beauty and brokenness, in my particular sins and struggles.”

The great enemy of spiritual growth is not always rebellion; sometimes it’s distraction. We rush from one thing to the next, constantly checking notifications, thinking about what’s next, replaying what already happened, and missing the life God has placed directly in front of us. It was Corrie ten Boom once said that “if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy.” 

Jesus had a remarkable ability to be fully present. When people interrupted Him, He stopped. When someone was hurting, He noticed. When children approached Him, He welcomed them. Even on His way to perform miracles, He paid attention to the people in front of Him. He wasn’t always rushing to the next thing. Many of us spend our lives waiting for the perfect moment. We tell ourselves we’ll be happy when the kids are older, when work slows down, when the house is finished, when the finances improve, when life settles down. But life rarely settles down. There will always be another challenge waiting around the corner. That’s why we have to receive today as a gift. 

One of the most famous Christian books ever written is called Practicing the Presence of God. It was written in 1692 by a man named Brother Lawrence. He wasn’t a pastor, theologian, or missionary. He was a cook. For years, Brother Lawrence worked in a monastery kitchen washing dishes and preparing meals, but people sought him out for spiritual advice because he seemed unusually aware of God’s presence.

His secret was surprisingly simple: He practiced talking with God throughout the day. Whether he was scrubbing pots or preparing food, he viewed every moment as an opportunity to enjoy God’s presence. He wrote, “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer.” Most of us divide life into sacred moments and ordinary moments. Church is sacred. Prayer is sacred. Reading the Bible is sacred. But folding laundry? Driving to work? Answering emails? Waiting in line at the grocery store? Practicing God’s presence doesn’t require adding more things to your schedule. It means becoming aware that God is already with you in the schedule you have.

The rockstar Warren Zevon had been on the top of the Billboard charts. He’d been on the cover of Rolling Stone. He’d been admired by other great artists and musicians like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty. The heights of fame were enjoyable, but it took a jarring diagnosis of terminal lung cancer to give Zevon a new perspective. And when it came, he passed it along in a very simple, very practical piece of advice: Enjoy every sandwich.

Sure, it’s great to write hit songs, it’s wonderful to be able to travel the world, to be able to afford fancy stuff, but there is also nothing like the simple pleasure of eating a sandwich. Or drinking a glass of water after a run on a hot summer day. Or listening to that one song that always makes you feel good.

He is with you during the morning commute, while making breakfast, in the meeting, the classroom, the waiting room, and the checkout line. He is with you while changing diapers, answering emails, mowing the lawn, folding laundry, or walking the dog. Every moment becomes sacred when you remember that God is there.

The Gift of Today

There is another reason Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us today.” Not only does it remind us to be present, it reminds us that today itself is a gift. Most of us treat today as something to get through instead of something to receive.

Imagine for a moment that every morning you woke up, you went to your front door and sitting on the porch was a gift wrapped with your name on it. Every single morning you would open a gift with something you needed for that day. In a way, that’s what God’s mercy is like. Jeremiah told us that God’s mercies are “new every morning.” We’re worried about next week’s meeting, next month’s bills, next year’s plans, or some future problem that hasn’t even happened yet. Meanwhile, God is trying to give you something today.

Maybe today’s gift is strength for a difficult conversation or courage to take the next step. Maybe it’s peace in the middle of uncertainty or the laughter of a child. It could be a beautiful sunset, or an unexpected opportunity. God’s blessings are often disguised as ordinary. Another cup of coffee or evening around the dinner table. The older I get, the more I realize that many of the things I once considered ordinary were actually extraordinary gifts. The moments I rushed through eventually became the moments I wanted back. 

The spiritual writer Thomas Merton once said that one of the most important parts of spirituality is the, “ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendor that is all around us.” One day you’ll wish you could have one more conversation with someone you love. One more dinner around the table. One more bedtime routine with your children. One more ordinary day that seemed so unremarkable at the time.

Stop wishing you were somewhere else. Ask God to “give you today,” and receive it as the gift that it is.

Practice:
Take a deep breath. Slow down. Ask yourself: What am I thinking about besides what’s happening right now? Give it to God.

Prayer:
God, thank You for today. I confess that I often live in the past or worry about the future, but right now, I choose to be present. Help me receive today as a gift—to walk with You moment by moment, and to recognize Your goodness in the simple things. Quiet my heart and focus my mind. Thank You for being with me right here, right now. Amen.