When Jesus taught his followers to pray, he could have said to pray, \u201cbless us\u201d or \u201chelp us.\u201d But he didn\u2019t. He said, \u201cGive us this day our daily bread.\u201d He urged his followers to be specific in prayer.<\/p>\n
To his first followers, bread was central to life. It was a staple. A necessity. A lifeline. So Jesus said, \u201cPray for bread.\u201d Praying for specific needs like that has several advantages: <\/p>\n
1) Praying for specific needs clarifies our minds.<\/strong> \u201cOh, Lord, have mercy on me.\u201d \u201cPlease come to me.\u201d \u201cPlease bless me.\u201d \u201cHelp me.\u201d \u201cWell, what I really need is enough patience not to scream at my little boy who just spilled his juice all over the new carpet.\u201d Maybe you don\u2019t relate to God in quite that way. But I think Jesus\u2019 instruction to pray specifically for our needs helps us to spell out and spill out what we really want to ask. <\/p>\n 2) Praying for specific needs helps us define our needs.<\/strong> For example, \u201cLord, bless me\u201d won\u2019t lead me to recognize that I don\u2019t need a raise as much as I need to say no to buying more stuff, or that maybe I don\u2019t need a new co-worker but the wisdom, love and humility to resolve my conflicts with the one I have.<\/span><\/p>\n 3) Praying for specific needs emphasizes our dependence on and intimacy with God.<\/strong> But if I pray for the things I need, I am not only reminded of that fact but am also drawn closer to my Father as I do \u201cprecisely what children do when they love and trust the one they call \u2018Father\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n 4) Praying for specific needs makes us more alert to answers.<\/strong> 5) Praying for specific needs increases our faith.<\/strong> Then one day, decades later, I realized that I truly believed and trusted God\u2014probably not as well as those I looked up to years ago, but certainly in ways I had once thought impossible. <\/span><\/p>\n Why? Because in those years I had experienced\u2014over and over again\u2014God\u2019s faithfulness in hearing and answering prayer. The more I learned to pray specifically, the more I saw and marked and remembered his answers. And each time that happened, my faith grew.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Adapted from The Red Letter Prayer Life<\/em> by Bob Hostetler (Barbour Books 2015)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Jesus taught his followers to pray, he could have said to pray, \u201cbless us\u201d or \u201chelp us.\u201d But he didn\u2019t. He said, \u201cGive us this day our daily bread.\u201d He urged his followers to be specific in prayer. To his first followers, bread was central to life. It was a staple. A necessity. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":30671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[14],"ppma_author":[465],"class_list":["post-24063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to-pray","tag-spiritual-growth"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nI can imagine Jesus responding to my prayers much as he spoke to Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52):<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat do you want me to do for you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u201cAh, well, I can do that. I can also remind you to put a lid on his cup from now on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\nOften in prayer I have asked God for something and soon have heard myself saying something like, \u201cNo, that\u2019s not it exactly. It\u2019s not that, but this other thing I really need.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n
\nIf I really pray for God to provide the bread I need today, I may be tempted to forget that \u201cEvery good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n
\nIf I pray for \u201cblessings,\u201d God may answer but I may not recognize the answer when it comes. But if, on the other hand, I pray for \u201cbread\u201d\u2014or someone similarly specific\u2014I will be more attentive and alert to the answer when it comes.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nAs a young pastor, I was awed by the men and women of faith who surrounded me. Their lives, words and prayers revealed depths and heights of faith that were simultaneously attractive to me and seemingly impossible for me. <\/span><\/p>\n