Praying Daily for Your Daily Bread

When Jesus taught the Twelve disciples (and us) to pray daily for daily bread (Lk. 11:3), He is instructing us to pray for our daily need for food and our daily need for all the basics of life — the “staples” of life. He is teaching us to express our dependence on and trust in God to provide for our needs.

Because we are needy and because we are limited in ability and strength, we go to the One who is unlimited in resources and love and ask Him to provide. We ask Him for help with all our needs — the biggest and the smallest — engaging in conversation with Him about all those needs just as we would any other dear friend.

To pray for all our needs is also helped by being purposeful in praying — by planning to pray for all things. As we get older, and as our responsibilities and relationships expand, it can be helpful to maintain lists of needs for which we regularly pray. (Note: Jesus doesn’t teach us to make lists; He teaches us to pray for all our daily needs. Keeping lists is simply a means of remembering the things for which we are praying and need to pray.)

Here are some categories of “daily bread” needs for which you might consider praying (and expanding the lists to your particular needs):

• Pray for food and shelter and all the needs related to providing for yourself and your family (pray for the provision of food, gratitude for food provided, and for skill and faithfulness in planning for food, including things like saving for future needs of food and other staples)
• Pray for your job — provision of a salary to meet your needs, skill in fulfilling your responsibilities, transportation to get to your job, health and rest to be able to do your job
• Pray for health (implied many places, but explicit in 3 Jn. 2) as well as the spiritual lessons that we might learn through illness
• Pray for your own spiritual growth —
  • What is the Lord teaching you about Himself and yourself so that you can grow in Christlikeness? What is the state of your heart (what do you love? hate?) — and what is that revealing about what you need to change?
  • What is your ministry revealing about your need to grow and change? How can you be more faithful in your ministry and service of Christ and the church?
• Pray for spiritual strength to obey Christ and resist temptation (Lk. 11:4; Mt. 26:41). Just as the need for food and sleep is daily, so we are assaulted by daily temptations. So pray for grace to daily resist those onslaughts from the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
• Pray for your family members by name. Pray for their particular needs and circumstances, including what they need to grow in Christlikeness.
• Pray for the needs of others (notice Jesus says, “give us” — implying both that all of us are to pray in this way and that we should also pray for others). One way to do that is to systematically pray through the church directory, perhaps praying one or two letters of the alphabet each day, or taking a day to pray for the needs of the people within your home group, Sunday School class, or other circle of influence that you have.
• Pray for ministry (both yours and others)
  • Keep a list of all the various ministries of the church and their leaders and pray systematically through that list
  • Pray for all the missionaries of the church and other missionaries you personally know
  • Pray for unbelievers who need to hear and believe the gospel — and for people to share the gospel to them
  • Pray for opportunities to speak the gospel (and boldness to take advantage of the gospel)
• Pray with gratitude — don’t just ask God for your daily needs but thank Him for how He faithfully provides for those needs

It has been said that no one grows in Christlikeness accidentally. If a person grows spiritually, it is because he has been intentional in pursuing Christ. Similarly, if we will grow in our skill of praying it will be because of a purposeful plan for our prayers.

Anders Zorn, “Vårt dagliga bröd,” Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.