Your Father Knows What You Need

It is 388 miles of driving from Blairmore House, the Ellel Ministries centre in Scotland, to the city of York, where Paul and I live. We like to start this drive very early in the morning and stop off at Dundee to buy sandwiches for our lunch from the supermarket. This July we were returning from Operation Blairmore, the Healing Retreat for pastors and leaders. We set off at 4:50 am, and arrived two hours later at the supermarket. We know the fresh sandwiches are put out at 6 am, and we went to choose our favourite ones.

What a shock to discover the shelves were empty, except for a few left over from the day before! One of the employees told me there had been a big delay and that they might arrive in an hour’s time.

Disappointed, we resigned ourselves to the left-over packages and discussed what to buy, when suddenly the man I had spoken to appeared and said the sandwiches had just arrived. What kind did I want? I told him my favourites, and he came back with a gigantic wire cage on wheels filled with brown cardboard boxes. He searched diligently through all the labels to find my favourites, and started unpacking some boxes. I felt so grateful that he really seemed to care and was looking after us.

It was only after we had bought them, and I was thanking our heavenly Father, that I realised we hadn’t thought to pray about this matter. But didn’t it say somewhere in the Bible that, before we ask, God answers our prayer?

Yes. I searched for it and found that our Lord Jesus taught His disciples about how they were to pray. He said, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:7-8).

I had to laugh, as the next verses say, “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread’” (Matthew 6:9-1).

Our Lord Jesus also taught His disciples this: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:31-33).