Pray Some More!

When we last talked, we were discussing the teaching that Jesus gave His disciples regarding prayer. We looked at the first two parts of that teaching, now let’s look at the rest.

The next thing that Jesus says to His followers is that they need to pray for their needs. First, He addresses the physical needs by telling them to ask for their daily bread. Notice that the emphasis is on daily bread. We are to ask God for the things we need today.

This point is illustrated in the account of the children of Israel as they walked through the desert for 40 years. Each day they were to collect enough “mana” for that day. If they tried to collect more and save it for the next day, it would rot and they wouldn’t be able to use it. But God provided for them each and every day. There wasn’t anything that they wanted for. It was enough for the day.

In the same way, God is calling us to pray not for what we need tomorrow, but what we need today. We can only be given what is necessary for today. Pray then that way.

He then addresses their spiritual needs, which is by far more important. He addresses them by telling them to confess their sins, and to seek forgiveness. They are to receive forgiveness in the same way they grant forgiveness. In the passage in Matthew, Jesus follows this up by telling them if they refuse to forgive those who have sinned against them, they shouldn’t expect God to forgive them.

This is a hard teaching because we see God as an all loving God (and He is). But He is also a just God and He will not allow us to go free if we are unwilling to set others free, too.

Prayer is important because we have needs. And God wants to meet each of these needs. Each day we should be praying that God will forgive us our sins because we sin each day. We need the physical needs of the day (food, shelter, etc.) and God is willing to grant us those things if we are willing to ask Him for them.

So how has your prayer life been the past couple of days? We’ll see you in church on Sunday!