The Lord's Prayer ExplainedSample

The Lord’s Prayer Concerns Our Needs

From the very outset, the Lord’s Prayer rightly focuses on God’s sovereignty and majesty. It starts with worship. The Lord’s Prayer expresses our submission to God and our willingness for His will to be done in our lives. However, it does not end there. It does not ignore our own needs and concerns. On the contrary, Christ instructed His disciples to present their requests to their heavenly Father.

First, Jesus told His disciples to ask for their physical needs. In the Lord’s Prayer, He said to ask for your daily bread; this means we can ask for anything we need in our everyday lives. In another Bible passage, Jesus expanded this thought by encouraging us to present our needs to God, always seeking to align our desires with His will. This ensures that our requests reflect trust in His provision and submission to His divine purposes. God is a good Father. He wants to provide for our needs.

Jesus consistently encourages us to ask boldly and persistently. Christ literally commanded in the Gospels that we ask, seek, and knock. The Lord promised that we will be rewarded for our boldness. Jesus also told the parable of a poor widow who was persistently asking something from an unjust judge. Even though the judge was reluctant and unjust, he granted her request because she was persistent. Jesus explained that our good heavenly Father is even more willing and ready to grant our requests. Jesus said that God wants to answer our prayers so that we will have complete joy. This is the kind of Father that we are privileged to have. Christ said that even earthly parents, being evil, give good gifts to their children. Our heavenly Father is even more eager and able to answer our prayers because He is good.

There is another truth hidden in Christ’s instruction of asking for bread daily. Requesting something we need for one day expresses both trust and contentment. We do not need to look too far into the future and worry about what will happen in our lives years from now. We can trust God. We can believe His character and know that He will supply our needs and desires, today and every day. We need to be willing to trust our Father every moment. We must believe His provision for our present needs. This is a timeless truth about our relationship with our God. This is why the psalms call Him our strength and refuge; our ever-present help in times of trouble.