Prayer for human needs

Our heavenly Father cares for us! He watches over us to provide for us in many different ways. Through prayer we are able to tell him about our needs but nothing is new to him! This is one of the mysteries of prayer, but it is the very same thing that every loving father experiences in relation to his children. Every child receives much more than it asks for. Parents provide their children with every thing they need. That doesn’t mean that it is unnecessary for the child to express desires, dreams and hopes to their parents. On the contrary, this communication of needs and dreams, desires and wants makes the relationship between parents and child very meaningful. The same thing applies to our relationship to our heavenly Father. The communication, time spent together – prayer enriches the relationship.

1. Give us today our daily bread. (Matt. 6:11)

In this prayer Jesus teaches the disciples that our heavenly Father is concerned about all our physical needs and that it is right and good to ask him to give us all the material things which we need. God cares about the whole person, all our needs, nothing is too big and nothing too small to be brought to him in prayer.

Jesus gave his disciples thorough teaching about God’s concern for their physical wellbeing and their material needs. Jesus says that it is God who gives life to all animals and birds, he clothes the fields and hills with the most beautiful flowers - will he not much more take care of his people? When we seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness he will supply all our needs. (See Matt. 6:25-33)

Prayer for daily bread is a simple and relevant prayer to God - The All Sufficient One - to give us all we need for each day of our lives. It is a prayer about daily living, for God to look after us; that he may be with us and help us in all our needs. We pray for work and a regular income, for food and clothes, for house and home. We pray for the public economy to work so that people can have education, work and transport. We pray also for health and welfare for ourselves and for our families. We pray for the health service and for those who work in it, that they may be able to help the sick and suffering efficiently.

When we pray about the things which are a part of our daily lives, we can also pray that we may have grace from God to use our abilities to help others. We pray that we may develop the creative abilities that God has given us, so that we shall be able to help to meet our own and others’ needs. We pray too, that we, or others, may be inventive in starting up workplaces or activities which are a daily blessing for many people.

May the Lord bless his land with the precious dew from heaven above and with the deep waters that lie below; with the best the sun brings forth and the finest the moon can yield; with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills; with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness. (Deut. 33:13-16)

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:19)

Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. (Prov.30:8)

2. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matt. 6:2)

In Jesus’ teaching about prayer, the need for forgiveness from sin appears as the central issue in a person’s life. Our sins have made us guilty; they have put us in debt. We cannot repay or free ourselves from this debt situation. Only God can forgive sin and make us free from guilt. He forgives us on the basis of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross where he took our punishment and paid our debt.

The prayer for forgiveness is the central prayer in the whole Bible. It underlines the fact that we, as Jesus’ disciples, continually need to receive forgiveness for our shortcomings, our negligence, our mistakes and transgressions of God’s law.

The last part of this prayer is also important because it emphasises that we must live in forgiveness and always forgive others who do wrong to us. The expression, ‘as we also have forgiven our debtors’ is said in the assurance that those who have received forgiveness for their own sins also receive a mind which is ready to forgive those who sin against them.

It is typical for Jesus to connect our relationship with our fellow men to our relationship with God (See Matt.5:21ff; 5:5ff; 18:23ff; Luke 6:32-38). He who is unforgiving towards his fellow man loses his own forgiveness. All that God has done for us, we are required to do for others.

3. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matt. 6:13)

This prayer is a natural consequence of the previous one. When Jesus pronounced people’s sins forgiven he always added: ‘Go, and sin no more!’ So Jesus teaches us to pray both for forgiveness for sins we have done and to be kept from sinning today. This is a prayer about being kept as God’s people in an evil world.

We all meet temptations and trials and if we fight in our own strength, we will fail. Therefore, we ask God to keep us from situations we will not be able to master. We pray for grace and help to react rightly in situations we encounter. We pray that we will not have trials we cannot cope with. God has promised us that he will hold his hand over us and help us so that we will not be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Cor.10:13).

It is an advantage if we know our own weaknesses, because then we can cry out to God for strength and help. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves; he knows what it is to be human. So he has compassion on us, he understands us and can help us in every situation (Heb. 4:15-16). When we pray we can tell the Lord about all our battles, our defeats and our broken dreams. We can come to him with all our disappointments about ourselves and know that he does not give up on us but will help us to win victories.

On the basis of forgiveness from sin, Jesus’ disciples have promises of salvation from all the works of the enemy; that nothing shall hurt those who believe and pray for help (Luke 10:19; 11:20-22; Col.2:14-15). The evil enemy is already conquered, so we can pray with boldness to be kept from sin, for grace to be victorious in the good fight of faith. The promises in God’s word show us that the Lord will answer when we pray for help to meet the difficulties in life in the right way.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Rom. 8:35,37)

For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (1 John 5:4)

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. (1 John 5:18)

Exercise:

Give an example of how God has answered your prayers.

What are the personal needs you are praying for at the moment?

What are you praying for others?

Continue to memorise and add this Bible verse:

I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13)