Even we sinners have some capacity to know what we need. Our stomach is good at letting us know when we need food. … Our stomach, though, cannot tell us what kind of food we need. A Twinkie or a carrot will both do. Our stomach knows it needs food, but it is a vague and inaccurate knowledge. …
Jesus tells us what we need. He clarifies the unclear preaching of our stomach and teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” …
This is an incredible gift. Jesus teaches us what our real and true needs are in this life. And there are certain things we need of which we are completely ignorant. In fact, these are the things we need most of all, the things we pray for in the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. We have no natural capacity to know we need the Lord’s name, His kingdom, His Word, and His Spirit.
Imagine the Lord had given us a stomach for His Word, a little stomach behind our ears. If we skipped our morning devotions and prayers, that little ear-stomach would growl at us. If we skipped church, our kids would grab their ear-stomachs and complain, “I’m starving. When are we going to hear a sermon?” … If we had these ear-stomachs, people would be lined up for church. … If we had ear-stomachs, the petition “Hallowed b e Thy name” would be as natural for us as “Give us this day our daily bread.” Alas, we don’t have ear-stomachs. …
The Lord has to teach us what we need most of all: His name, His Word, His kingdom, and His Spirit.
The seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer do this very thing. “Hallowed be Thy name” teaches us that we need the Lord’s name and His Word. “Thy kingdom come” teaches us that we need the Lord’s Spirit and His Church. “Thy will be done” teaches us that we need the Lord’s will, not ours, to be accomplished. Here we learn that we need the Lord’s help to overcome the will of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
The devil tries to prevent our prayers with this little trick, “If God know what is going to happen, then there is no use in praying.” Jesus says the exact opposite when He teaches us the Lord’s Prayer. “Because God knows everything, including everything you need, therefore pray.” (Matthew 6:8-9)
Bryan Wolfmueller Has American Christianity Failed? 196-198