Tuesday 11 March 2025
Isaiah 55:10-11. From all their afflictions God will deliver the just – Ps 33(34):4-7, 16-19. Matthew 6:7-15.
Our Father knows what we need
‘Your Father knows what you need’. With these words, Jesus introduces what we now call the Lord’s Prayer, the ‘Our Father’.
Although the things he lists aren’t the only things we can pray for, it is interesting what Jesus offers as examples: that God’s kingdom come to fruition (the sine qua non); that God’s will be done on Earth (so, clearly, it isn’t always – so much for absolute predestination); that our Father give us our daily bread (the essentials of life); that he forgive us our sins . . . but . . . ‘as we forgive those who sin against us’ – and that one is a killer.
He even reinforces the point after the prayer: if we don’t forgive others for their sins against us, we will not be forgiven. Who said God’s love was unconditional? But to come back to his introductory words: ‘Our Father knows what we need’. Prayer is for us to discover the same thing: what we need.
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