7. Praying for Our Needs
God takes our needs very seriously. Have you ever thought about that? Consider the Lord's Prayer that we looked at earlier in this book. In the outline prayer he gave, Jesus placed the "petition" or request "Give us today our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11 and also Luke 11:3) directly after the opening praise and request for God's kingdom and his will – and even before a number of important spiritual issues such as asking forgiveness and protection from evil.
Why would Christ have given such priority to our needs if they were not extremely important to God? At the physical level, our heavenly Father understands that without having our basic needs it may be pointless for us to pray for ongoing spiritual issues. We must survive and function if we are to grow spiritually and serve others.
Jesus himself worked according to that basic truth in dealing with people. The Gospels record a number of occasions when he healed and helped people first and only then told them to "sin no more" (John 5:14, 8:11) or gave them other spiritual instruction. Jesus knew people's physical needs had to be in place and then they could look to spiritual needs. "Our daily bread" can include both.
Our Daily "Bread" So let's examine the request for our needs that Jesus incorporated into the Lord's Prayer. First, we must recognize, of course, that asking God to supply our daily bread is not asking or expecting God to rain down food or other needs from heaven as he did in the story of the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:4)! That was a situation in which God's people were in an area where it was impossible to get food by any normal means. The Bible is clear that in most cases we need to work and do whatever we can to supply our needs (Proverbs 21:25, 2 Thessalonians 3:10, etc.); but in asking God's help, we are asking him to bless our efforts and to grant us what we need in areas where we are unable to provide for ourselves.
Next, we should understand that asking for the physical "bread" we need means much more than just nourishment. In the biblical world the word "bread" was often used to refer to food in general – just as the miraculous manna given to the ancient Israelites was called "bread from heaven"– but it could also mean our basic needs. Today we still speak of the "breadwinners" in our families, and in the Lord's Prayer asking for "bread" is clearly meant in the broader sense of asking for all our needs, not just our nourishment. The more we look at this petition, the broader we see it is. Shortly after giving the Lord's Prayer, Jesus instructed his disciples not to worry about physical things and told them:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? … your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:25-33). This clear teaching indicates that the request for our daily "bread" involves more than just food and other basic physical necessities. In fact, this request in the Lord's Prayer may have a broader and deeper meaning than we often realize.
The word "daily" in the expression "Give us today our daily bread" is not the usual word (hemeran) used in the New Testament, but a different Greek word (epiousios) which is not found anywhere else in the Bible – or in other ancient Greek writings. Although many versions of the Bible translate this word as "daily," that is really just a guess; but there is no reason to repeat "Give us today our daily bread." Many biblical scholars feel that the word should be translated either the bread that is "necessary for existence" (in other words, bread as a symbol of all our physical needs) or bread that is "beyond-substance" (in other words, spiritual "bread" or nourishment).
We may not be able to know which translation is closest to the ancient meaning of the word often translated "daily," but the two possibilities should remind us that we are encouraged to pray for what we need – whether it is a physical or spiritual need.
Physical Needs The physical needs covered by the request for our "daily bread" are wide-ranging indeed. Jesus invites us to pray not only for the food we need, but also for any such necessities of life – a home to live in, a job to work at, clothes to wear, education or training from which we may benefit in order to be able to successfully survive – whatever is essential as opposed to merely wanted (Matthew 6:25).
Although it is not wrong to pray for some things we desire that are not actually necessary to stay alive – as we will see in the next chapter – our physical requests should first and foremost be for actual needs. And even if we have the things we need at this moment, it will not help us if we are not kept safe – so we can and should pray for protection. We see this prayer in so many of the Psalms and in the prayer of Jesus for his disciples: "… Father, protect them by the power of your name" (John 17:11).
In the same way, we can pray for healing from illness or help in dealing with disabilities. Healing itself is a broad area – we may need help with physical, emotional or mental healing, but God is willing to hear our prayers for any aspect of wellness (James 5:1416). The apostle John showed the importance of our need for health when he wrote: "I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well" (3 John 1:2).
We may find ourselves suffering in other ways, perhaps from anxiety, grief, or persecution, but God's word to us is the same in any case: "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray" (James 5:13). Implicit in this command, of course, is God's desire to help us and to provide for us in all our physical needs. And we should not hesitate to take our needs to God – no real need is too small to be prayed about. As Christian Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom wrote: "Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden."
The key is always putting God first in our lives, and then no real need is too small to take to him. If we have sincerely prayed according to the outline given by Jesus then we have put God and his will and kingdom first in our prayers and can confidently ask "Give us today our daily bread." That is why the apostle Paul could write dogmatically: "My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
Spiritual Needs Jesus himself talked about the necessity of both physical and spiritual "bread" (Matthew 4:4), and we also have the clear account of how he dealt with those who were following him – feeding them when they were hungry and then explaining the importance of the true "spiritual bread" that he and his words represented (John 6:35). As we saw above, Jesus did not stop at fulfilling people's physical need – he continued by then making available what they needed spiritually. So our "daily bread" is not limited to the purely physical. The apostle Paul makes this point in writing to the church of Corinth:
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness (2 Corinthians 9:10). How clear it is that we should be asking for the one as we ask for the other. Our spiritual needs are primarily for God's presence and Spirit in our lives, but we should also be praying daily for increased understanding of God's will and for help in overcoming sin and our own human nature. This is an ongoing battle, of course, and in the same letter Paul reminds us of the need to be confidently and continually going to God for this daily spiritual need:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Corinthian 4:16). Some of our spiritual needs – such as the ability to forgive, and to be delivered from evil – are covered by specific petitions in the Lord's Prayer outline, so we should already be praying for those things; but our requests for our daily spiritual bread should include the specific needs that we face in our own lives as we seek to love and obey God. In this regard we should not neglect to pray for our own prayer life. This is something few people think to do, but asking for ongoing guidance in how and what to pray can lead to greater success in everything we pray about!
And we should always remember that God is more than desirous to grant us our requests for spiritual help and growth (Romans 8:513, 26-27, 31-32). Specifically, Romans 8:32 tells us: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" That is a beautiful verse, but we must never forget its context, which is one of God's gift of our spiritual needs.