Give us this day our …

Daily bread.

Those are two of the words Jesus gives us to pray with in Luke 11:3. I've been praying and thinking about these simple words lately, and they are transforming my life. There are so many things in life I impatiently think I want or need, things that sidetrack me from opening my hands and free-falling into my Father's arms. Jesus' idea of prayer is so much simpler, though -- ask for my daily bread.

It doesn't seem like much, but it's a prayer I'm finding so much freedom in. I don't know what I need, where I'm going in life or what I will face each day. My God, though, knows what every single one of my days looks like and he knows what every piece of my heart -- my weaknesses and my strengths -- looks like, and he knows what I need in order to become more like him and make my love more like his. I just have to ask for my daily bread, trust him and be amazed.

Following the Lord's Prayer that Jesus gives us, Jesus promises in Luke 11:13 that God will give us the Holy Spirit in full measure and abundance and we will receive the Spirit if we ask, seek and knock. This verse makes me think that maybe when I'm frustrated about not getting the things I want, I'm asking for the wrong things. Not that it isn't good to let God know things other than the Holy Spirit I desire, but the worth Jesus places in the Spirit in verse 13 and his promise to give me the Spirit when I ask have been helping me realize that maybe God alone really is enough for me, and that I can trust his judgments and plans in my life.

I want to want what God wants for me, to desire his will alone. I want to live in the comfort, security and beauty of knowing I'm in God's will and moving toward him all the time. I'm realizing it's the Holy Spirit and the Spirit's gifts and fruit I really want, so I can discern God's desires for me, my real needs and my role in attaining those needs.

When I ask for my daily bread and for the Holy Spirit, my sense of entitlement disappears and my anxiety about the future is no longer justified, leaving me free to receive gifts from God and to be grateful. The things I don't receive during the day I realize I must not need at this moment of my life. The things I do receive become surprises and sources of delight -- gifts -- as I receive things and graces from my Father I didn't realize I needed or wanted. It's fun letting God woo me and entrusting myself to him, not knowing what to expect but knowing it will be good, and that it will be enough.

Mia Pohlman is a Perryville, Mo., native studying at Truman State University. She loves performing, God and the color purple -- not necessarily in that order.