11 Give us this day our daily
bread. – Matthew 6:11
Our heavenly Father invites
us to bring our requests to Him too. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray,
He included this line: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Seven
practical, straightforward words—but what was He really inviting us to ask for?
This is more than a prayer
for food. “Our daily bread” represents all the basics we require.
It’s such a practical prayer that covers four essential needs in our lives:
1. Income. We
can pray for adequate income for every household—not so our wants will be met,
but so our needs will be met. When we’re praying about financial needs, we know
we’re praying according to God’s will. Just a few verses later, Jesus tells us
not to worry about our basic needs.“Therefore take no thought, saying, What
shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For
after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things.” (6:31–32). God doesn’t want us
to worry about our basic needs; He wants us to trust Him to provide.
Now it might not be God’s
will for you to have the exact job you’ve been dreaming of, but it is God’s
will for you to have a job. It is God’s will for the physical needs in your
house to be met, and you can pray boldly with those needs in mind.
2. Physical health. God never offers a universal, blanket promise for good health for
everyone. But He is the God who heals. He has never stopped being all that He
is, so the God who healed Naaman (2 Kings 5) and the woman who had been
bleeding for twelve years (Matthew 5) is the same God today. Healing is for
today too. You can pray for physical health. If God has a different plan, He
will reveal it to you. When You have physical needs, and when you need the
grace to endure, come confidently to Him! “Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in
time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16).
3. Emotional health. Every individual has basic emotional needs. There is so much lack
of wellness around us today. People are depressed, weighed down by anxiety,
bitterness, fear, and apathy. We can ask, “Father, I need my daily bread of
emotional sustenance. I long to be able to handle things. I need to know I’m
not going to lose it. Please give me the peace of knowing I’m going to be okay.
I need You to calm the waters in my life, God, and make me a stable person. In Jesus’
name.” With confidence we can pray for emotional health.
4. Spiritual health. We can pray for the salvation of loved ones. We know the Lord “is
longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9). We can call out to God to
bring wandering children back home, back to Him. We can ask Him to save a
spouse and to rescue a daughter-in-law. We can call out to God for these things
with assurance.
All of this—income and
physical, emotional, and spiritual health—is encompassed by the term “daily
bread,”and God invites us to ask Him for what we need. Just like children who run to their parents to
meet their needs, so we can ask “Our Father in heaven” today,
every day, to meet our everyday needs.
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