This begins Part Two of John R. Rice’s Prayer: Asking and Receiving, entitled “What to Pray For,” and Chapter 5, “Praying for Daily Bread.”
“Give us day by day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3).
In this chapter, Mr. Rice encourages us to pray for all of our material needs, and gives a number of examples from the Bible of God supplying needs (usually for food or drink), and from his personal life (especially for money).
This topic is very dear to me. Ever since I first started reading Christian biographies around 30 years ago, I’ve been impressed with how God has met the daily needs of those who trusted Him to do so. One bright example is George Muller. Over his lifetime, he prayed in millions of British Pounds to house, feed and care for his orphans in Bristol, printing of Gospel literature, and for the support of missionaries (Hudson Taylor and the missionaries of the China Inland Mission being some who were blessed by Mr. Muller.
Mr. Rice encourages all Christians to read George Muller of Bristol by A.T. Pierson. Of Muller, he says: “George Muller abundantly proved that God answers prayer about food and clothes and the ordinary necessities of life.”
There are a number of other biographies that give great encouragement in praying for material needs, but two of my favorites are by Norman Grubb. The first is C.T. Studd: Cricketer & Pioneer (Mr. Rice also mentions this biography in this chapter) and the second is Rees Howells, Intercessor.
One of the things that stands out in this chapter is the statement that because Jesus commanded us to pray for daily bread, He implied that God would “surely grant this request,” therefore “How bold we ought to be when we come to our own Heavenly Father and ask Him for bread for today!”
Are we bold in prayers? Are we bold in asking for food, drink, clothes, housing, or money? Shouldn’t we be?
Another thing that stands out is his different testimonies of how God provided work and money, and even a car, in answer to prayer.
I prayed for a car and got one in three days from totally unexpected sources. I prayed earnestly in a time of distress and God gave in two days’ time a check for $1,000.00 from a man I had never seen, who had never seen me; and between us there had never been a word by mail.
One thousand dollars in 1935 would be equal to over $17,000 today.
In our school of prayer, let’s pray for material needs as well as spiritual needs.
Promises for “Things”
“Give us this day our daily bread” (Mt. 6:11).
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Mt. 6:25-26).
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours (Mk. 11:24).
“If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (Jn. 14:14).
“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19).