PETITION YOUR NEEDS

Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV) - “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. ¹For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

So, Jesus models for us the Who and How we approach God. He encourages us to have a Hope. And in verse 11 He addresses what we usually consider prayer to be. He addresses our Petitions to God. This point #5 – Petition – (6:11) “Give us this day our daily bread.” Briefly, let us break down four major aspects in this point. They are Give, Day, Bread, and Daily.

So, Jesus in His Model, shows us that we can come to the One in whom we have faith, realizing His Holiness, and within the scope of our being a part of producing His Kingdom here on Earth with the needs that we have.

He starts with the phrase “Give us….” The Greek word used here means to supply, to furnish, to grant to someone. We are asking that God grant to us, to supply for us, to furnish for us something we need. If we have approached God in the proper way (the preceding points) then we as His children can freely ask for Him to supply our needs.

The phrase “this day…” means exactly that. This very day. Not tomorrow or next week, or next month But, we need this request now. The need is immediate. Not a long term goal, not a pipe-dream, not a wishful future – but the need is immediate.

Then He makes sure that we can understand what we are petitioning God for. He says
Bread. Bread was used in the Scripture as meaning any type of food that would nourish the body. It was symbolically representing anything that was a genuine need. You see, yes, we can ask God for our wants, but remember He promises to fulfill our needs. Sometimes as a bonus He gives us our wants. So, “This very Day we need you to supply our genuine needs” would be one way of saying this.

Finally, notice the word – Daily. Not all month’s, not all year’s, not for my life, but the immediate need. We are asking God to grant us what we need at the moment. And then, tomorrow we will ask Him to meet the need of that moment. One way of looking at this is that God wants us to remember that we are constantly in need of Him. We cannot do anything without Him. We must continually rely upon Him.

So, today, what immediate petitions are you bringing to Him? Are you fully trusting Him? Are you submitting to Him? Do you have faith in Him to supply your need for the moment?

Next we will see the points of Confession and Compassion. See you tomorrow.

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¹ Many of the older manuscripts  omit this last phrase of the prayer. I am including it because of the popularity of the way we say the prayer.