Here we are in week 3 of our series, Daily Bread, where we are looking at how Jesus taught the disciples how to pray. We are focusing on Jesus’ model prayer in Matthew 6. In case you haven’t been with us the last two weeks, let me just say again, that this prayer in Matthew 6 was not meant to be something that is recited word for word, but was intended as a roadmap for praying.
Jesus prayed differently from the other religious leaders of the day, and his disciples recognized this. For one thing, Jesus didn’t pray wordy, voluminous prayers. Instead, His prayers reflected the relationship He had with His Heavenly Father. Also, Jesus frequently went off by Himself, away from distractions and pressing needs, to be alone with His Father. These are some of the things we learn when we look to Jesus as our model for prayer.
Last week, we looked at verse 10, where Jesus says pray like this:
Matt 6:10 (CSB)—Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Pray that God fills your heart and your life so you can partner with Him to see His will accomplished on the earth. This is what we were designed for; to partner with God. I asked the question last week, “What is keeping us from praying bold prayers. What is keeping us from stepping into our true identity as His sons and daughters to see the King of the Universe’s will accomplished?”
“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.”
—Max Lucado
We look to God’s power, not our articulate prayers, to accomplish His will on the earth.
Now, look at what Jesus prays in verse 11. Let me read starting back in verse 9.
Matt 6:9-11 (CSB)—Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.
Not only are we to pray bold prayers, partnering with God, interceding on behalf of the people around us, to see His will accomplished, but Jesus shows us that we are also to pray for the simple, seemingly mundane, daily needs of our lives.
This kind of prayer is called Petition.
A prayer of petition is a direct request made to God for a specific need. It is simply asking.
Certainly Jesus says this thinking of the Jewish people wandering in the dessert for 40 years. Everyday, as the Jews wandered, God provided what for them? Bread and quail. The Jews were absolutely dependant upon God, daily for their bread. Each morning they gathered the bread and if they tried to gather enough to last two days, the bread would go bad before the second day. They were dependant upon God for His daily provision.
Give us today our daily bread. There is nothing simpler than depending on God by praying for our basic needs.
But have you ever wondered if God sometimes rolls His eyes or chuckles at our prayers? Have you ever wanted to pray for something so mundane and ordinary that you wondered if God really has time to hear your prayer?
Maybe you thought about praying for a good parking place, or for a meeting to go well, or to do well on a test at school. Certainly, the God of the universe, who holds everything in time and space together, doesn’t have time to find me a good parking place.
But in Matthew 6, Jesus says yes! Pray for your life’s simple needs. If they are on your mind, they are important to God. Why is this true?
I get the need to pray for God’s will to be done on the earth. That seems like a grand calling. But praying for my daily needs? Why?
Why should we pray for our daily bread?
- Gratitude
Praying for all of our daily needs reminds us who provides those needs. Instead of a mindset of lack, praying for our daily needs creates an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness. Praying for needs daily puts us in a place where, when we begin to see those prayers answered, we are not only reminded of who provided them, but motivated to continue asking, which reminds us who provided, and so on. Asking leads to an attitude of thankfulness.
Second, it is important that we petition God for our daily needs because all of us on some level, struggle with wanting a measure of control over our lives.
- Control
In his book, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, Tyler Stanton puts it like this:
Many have a subconscious, internal monologue that goes something like this: I want to live a fruitful, meaningful life, but I’m just not sure I can trust God. I can trust him as my answer to the big theological questions, but I’m not sure if I can trust him with my dreams, my hopes, my plans. I can trust him ultimately, but I doubt I can trust him immediately. So, I’m white-knuckling my life with everything I’ve got—micromanaging my surroundings, my perception, my next step.
—Tyler Stanton
Praying for our daily bread replaces control with trust. When I petition God for my daily needs, I essentially say, “God, I’m trusting you with what I need today.”
I need to be reminded of Paul’s words in Philippians 4.
Phil 4:6-7 (CSB)—Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
If you’re like me, you don’t like to ask for help. I like to think I am able to take care of things on my own. One day I was taking a fiberglass canopy off my truck. It was not a small canopy. It was one of those big tall canopies and I have a full size truck bed. They don’t come much bigger than this canopy I was taking off. I looked at it for a while and thought I had figured out a way to get it off the truck on my own.
About halfway through the process of getting it off, past the point of no return, I realized I didn’t have it. Fortunately, my neighbor, who had been watching me, rushed over, and helped me get it to the ground without it crushing me.
Now, I could have called any of my friends to come give me a hand, or I could have called one of the other pastors to help. But not only did I think I could handle it fine on my own, but I didn’t want to bother anyone.
When we pray to our Father that He would supply our daily needs, we remind ourselves that we need God’s help. We can try and make a go of it on our own, but at some point, we all realize we need God’s provision. When we pray for our daily needs, we acknowledge that we are not in charge and that what we have does not come by our hand but by God’s. Ultimately, we are not in control, but He is.
If God knows what we need before we ask, why do we need to ask? Because He wants us to
- Speak It
There is this interesting encounter that Jesus has with a lame man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. The tradition was that if the water in the pool was stirred, the first person into the water after it was stirred would be healed. So, many lame and blind people would gather at the pool and wait for the water to be stirred. John 5 tells the story of Jesus and this man who had been lame for 38 years.
Jesus approaches the man and asks the obvious question; a question that He already knows the answer to. Do you want to be healed, He asks. Well, of course He wants to be healed, duh.
In Luke 18 there is an account about a blind man alongside the road. When Jesus passes by the man calls out to Him. When they bring him to Jesus, He asks the man, “What do you want me to do for you?” Hello, he’s blind.
Jesus asks questions to which He already knows the answer. Why? Because He wants us to ask.
He wants us to say our needs. That’s what you do when you have a relationship with someone. When you have a relationship, you communicate. And that is what God wants with you, a relationship. That is why He sent His Son, Jesus, to die, to be tortured, and then be murdered on a cross. So that the relationship He wants with you could be restored.
God is not some automaton that automatically dishes out all of our needs. You were designed for a relationship with Him. He wants you to share your heart, which means coming to Him as His sons and daughters, sharing your needs, even though He already knows what they are. Communicating our needs requires some vulnerability on our part.
How will we ever learn to trust God without asking for anything? How will we ever be impressed with God’s provision if we never ask for anything? He wants us to ask, to speak our needs.
Finally, why should we pray for our daily bread? Because God loves to give His children good gifts.
- Good Gifts
As Jesus is teaching His disciples how to pray, a few verses later he tells them that God is a good Father who likes to give good gifts to His children. And that if we seek Him we will find Him, if we knock the door will be open and if we ask we will receive.
James 1:17 (CSB)— Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
God’s heart toward you is to see you prosper and thrive. That doesn’t mean hard things won’t happen and that doesn’t mean that we won’t struggle. But sometimes the struggle is the gift and the hard times are God’s goodness because it is through those times when we are so often driven to our kness, asking our Father to provide. When we ask, we give Him the opportunity to provide and show us His goodness and His good gifts.
As we end this morning, let’s take some time to Petition God for our daily needs. Is there something on your heart; a need that you have not brought to your Heavenly Father? If it is on your heart it is important to God. Maybe it is such a simple thing that you just haven’t thought God would be interested in hearing it. Share your heart and your needs with him and simply ask. Then watch how God answers that prayer.
Chris Hankel 
Leave a comment