Matthew 7:11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

If you walk up to a total stranger and ask for something you are considered a beggar. In contrast, your requests to God should flow out of your relationship with him. When you came to Christ for salvation you came asking to be forgiven. You recognized your total poverty and inability to please God in the condition you were in at that point. Now that you are forgiven and cleansed you can now approach God not as a beggar but as his child. You are a child in whom the Father takes pleasure. Would to God we could guarantee every child a good father, because if we could, it would be so much easier for everyone to grasp the simple truth of God’s love. If you did not have a good father, then take hold of the liberty which knowing your Heavenly Father brings. He loves you with an everlasting love. He gave his Son to prove his love for you. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how shall he not also along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

Out of your relationship should flow adoration, praise and thanksgiving to God for who he is and for your new life. You do have needs and your Father knows what they are. You may wonder then why you should even have to recite them. Well, one of the things I have found is that in voicing what is in your heart you begin to examine your motivations. That is a good thing because the main purpose of praying is not so you can tell God what to do, but rather that your relationship to God can be purified. Remember, he taught his disciples to pray to the Father: “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10). You are now part of the kingdom and this vision has to come alive in you before it can become your mission.

Ask now for your daily bread – the needs that surround you, your family, friends, neighborhood, country, peace in your work relationships, etc. Ask to be forgiven not just for what you know you have done wrong but for the things you know you should have done but didn’t. And remember this request requires you to forgive those who have wronged you. Ask to be delivered from the schemes of the evil one and for protection. Now rise and go in peace knowing your Heavenly Father loves you.