Teach Us to Pray Pt. 5
by Brad Spangler
Petition: Give us day by day our daily bread.
Petition is not a word used very often, but in its simplest form, it means to ask. Out of all the different forms of prayer, this is the most common type. I think it’s fascinating that Jesus emphasizes praying for others before we begin to pray for our own needs. Honestly, this hasn’t always been the order of my prayer life. It’s easy to get caught up in our needs and wants. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad to ask God for things; he wants us to, but if we aren’t careful, we will get too fixated on ourselves.
I think God wants us to ask Him for our daily needs because it reminds us of how dependent we are on HIm. As western civilization has become more and more prosperous over the years, asking God to give us “our daily bread” doesn’t seem very relevant anymore. Now that we have Amazon and delivery apps, where does God fit in? In Acts 17:28 NKJV, the Apostle Paul reminds us,
“for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”
When you realize that your very existence is found and sustained in and through Christ, you begin to recognize everything you have truly comes from Him. He is the one who gives you the power to gain wealth and prosper (Deut. 8:18). So it makes sense that when we find ourselves in a situation where we need a material or spiritual need met, we would come to our loving Heavenly Father and ask with confidence.
Quite often, our willingness to ask somebody for something will be directly tied to our level of trust in that person. So if you have difficulty asking God for things, it may be, that you don’t fully trust Him. Maybe you feel like God let you down. Or even worse, someone who claimed to represent God abused your trust. I don’t claim to have all the answers as to why certain things happen, but I do know that God is trustworthy. In James 1:17 NKJV, it says,
“Every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
So I encourage you to extend your trust. Even if it’s just a little bit, ask God to help you trust Him. The Father delights in His children who are willing to ask. Here are some questions for you to reflect on. How often do you ask God for things? Do you find it hard to trust Him? If so, why?