Pray Thanking God to Meet Your Needs

 

   Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis, and this is “Multiply,” the podcast that provides a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.  

Sometimes I am disappointed when I read about Jesus’ disciples in the Gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. So often they are looking out for their own interests, fighting over petty concerns and forgetting to do the right thing. Perhaps the shortcomings of Jesus’ disciples are best illustrated by their failure to remain awake and pray for him just before he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36 – 45). 

Even so, the disciples demonstrated wisdom from time to time. One of the smartest things they ever did was to ask Jesus to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1- 13). They had seen the power and peace, the joy and the courage that came to Jesus as he spent time with his Father in prayer. And the disciples wanted that same power and peace, that same joy and courage that they saw coming to Jesus through prayer.  

So, Jesus taught them the prayer we now call “The Lord’s Prayer,” or the “Our Father.” This is a prayer you too should teach your disciples to pray. It is recorded in Luke 11:2-4.  

One of the key phrases in the prayer Jesus taught is “Give us each day our daily bread.” The people of Palestine grew grain, mostly wheat and barley, and made bread from it. This was the basic, essential food for them, much like rice is the basic, essential  food for the peoples of tropical Africa. The disciples Jesus was teaching ate bread every single day to get energy and stay alive. They depended on bread for their very life. 

But Jesus taught an important truth when he said pray to God your heavenly Father this way, “Give us this day our daily bread.” He was teaching the disciples that they had a Father who would take care of them and provide what they needed. There are two kinds of people in this world: those who think they are on their own and must provide for themselves everything they need through their own intelligence, strength, and work and those who know that they have a heavenly Father who cares for them. Both kinds of people work hard, but those who trust their heavenly Father have peace as they work. They know he will meet their needs. 

Because we trust our Father in heaven, we pray “Father in heaven, give us this day our daily bread.” We ask God to meet our needs. All of our needs. Not just our need for food, but also our need for clean water, for good health, and for shelter and safety. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is a good, good Father. He knows our needs and delights to give us what we need. But, he invites us to ask him to meet our needs. When we do, we are blessed. 

So, teach your disciples to pray the Lord’s prayer. Remind them again and again to trust God to meet their needs and the needs of their family. Give thanks with them as God provides for their needs. As they pray, God will give them their daily bread. What’s more, through prayer, your disciples will find power and peace, joy and courage in the presence of the Father, just as Jesus did when he walked with his disciples in Palestine 2,000 years ago. 

This has been “Multiply,” and I’m Dean Davis asking, “Who will you share this encouraging word with today? 

#EncouragementForVillageChurchPlanters #DailyBread