Why should we ask for things from God? In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther explains the petition “Give us this day our daily bread.” He writes: “God provides daily bread, even to the wicked, without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that God may make us aware of his gifts and enable us to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” In Luther’s view, we ask for things in prayer so as to acknowledge that God gives them to us and to thank God for those things.
 

This is a shift of view for many people who regard prayer as a way of getting God to do what we want. There is something lacking with that way of thinking about prayer. Since God is all-knowing, everything that we could possibly ask for is already known by God. Suppose we are praying for healing for a friend. Would God be so cruel as not to grant what a person needs just because someone else hasn’t asked for it? I suggest that we are to ask God for things so we can acknowledge the true source of all good gifts and to give thanks for them. I’d even go further and suggest that we are changed by expressing care for others in prayer. We’re changed also when we pray for things for ourselves. We are transformed by submitting ourselves to God in prayer. This is even clearer when we deal with the particular form of prayer called confession.

Read 1 John 5:14-15, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

Today’s reading: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+5:14-15