Praying for Daily Needs
Summer 2021
Jesus taught His disciples to pray in part,“Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). It is the petition that follows the words at the opening of the Lord’s Prayer. The initial petitions focus on the glory of God, the kingdom of God, and the will of God. Christ’s message to the disciples was that prayer needs to concentrate on those divine objectives before any concern about the problems that believers face in the routine of daily life.
Nevertheless, the inclusion of this particular petition evokes the experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness over the span of forty years. Since they could not engage in farming, God sustained them day by day with the provision of manna. On each of five days, the people found the manna on the ground after the evaporation of the dew, and their instruction was to gather only as much as they needed for that day. Anything that was left over bred worms and stank. But on the sixth day, the eve of the Sabbath, the people were to gather enough for two days so that they would not have to leave their tents on the Sabbath. Some who were foolish went out on the Sabbath despite the warnings and found no manna. The message was that the daily provision did not require the violation of the Sabbath commandment.
The experience of the Israelites in the wilderness witnessed God’s concerns for the physical welfare of His people. Yet, it also underscored that the people were not to take God’s miraculous provision for granted. Their going out to gather their daily manna was a way of praying,“Give us this day our daily bread.” The people of God must depend on God every day for the supply of their basic needs.
The answer to Question 104 in the Shorter Catechism is that we pray in the fourth petition, “That of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy His blessing with them.” At the same time, the petition limits the extent of the prayer. Christ’s wish, according to William Hendriksen in his Commentary on Matthew was for “his disciples to be moderate in their desires and requests.”
Christ taught His disciples that they must approach the challenges of each day humbly, recognizing that even the necessities are those things for which they must depend on the Lord. This petition is the confession that, though a believer has a livelihood and means of support on which that believer may reasonably depend, the meeting of the needs of this life requires requires God’s daily provision. Thus, it is not in vain for the believer to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Christ impressed on His disciples the truth that God takes care of His people. In the same chapter of Matthew, He urged them to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first. Then, they would find that all the material things they needed, whether food or raiment or housing or other means of support, would be their portion.
The spirit of this petition runs against the delusion of this age in the pursuit of prosperity for its sake. Christ taught His disciples to be content with such things as God provided for them each day. Years later, Paul wrote from a prison to the believers in Philippi. He said, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content”(Philippians 4:11).
In his words is the great challenge of the fourth petition. The needs are great, but their boundary is that of a single day. Therefore, the petition aims at the cultivation of contentment in the place of anxiety. Concerns about financial challenges are natural and anxiousness about the ability to provide for everyday needs often arises. But those who seek the Lord as Christ has directed them will find that they arrive at the place of which Paul spoke—the place of contentment and peace. It could be that one of the lessons of the events of the past year in the world is to refocus our praying on those things we need for each day.
Rev. David G. Mook | Minister of Phoenix FPC, Peoria, Arizona | Adjunct professor in the field of practical theology at GRS