God knows our needs

You see a man on the street, looking around in a confused way. He doesn’t seem well at all, so you walk up to him: “Can I help you? Is there anything you need?” He replies, “Ehm… I don’t know…”

Sometimes life can feel like that – you don’t know what to do; you don’t know what you need. Maybe you’ve just heard terrible news about someone close to you. Or you’ve just lost your job. Or the busyness and struggles of recent weeks have left you so tired and overwhelmed, you don’t even know where to begin picking up the pieces. Despite people around you willing to help, you hardly know what to ask for.

But hear, Jesus gives us very good news: “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8b). Whatever you’re facing, however you feel, we can pray to God! He knows our need, even if we don’t.

Paul writes that the “Spirit helps us in our weakness,” and “intercedes for us” (Romans 8:26) in the context of describing life in a broken world (vv. 18-39). Yet this life is fully within God’s plan, in which he “works all things for the good of those who love him” (v. 28). Our Father knows whatever difficulty we face before it happens, because he sovereignly ordains it! He’s our Father in heaven. Almighty, all-wise; he “sees what is done in secret” (Matthew 6:6).

Dear Christian, isn’t it amazing that the sovereign King of the universe has come so near to us? That he loved us so much that we are now adopted as his children (1 John 3:1)? That he is “Our Father in heaven”? What a privilege, then, to carry everything to God in prayer! He’s both able and willing to answer our needs!

Klaas-Jan Gunnink