What About My Needs?

June, 2005

by: Walt Bertelsen

Give up your small (prayer) ambitions

How much of your prayer time is devoted to praying for your own needs?

I doubt any of us need to be taught to pray for our own needs—“give us this day our daily bread” and “forgive us our debts” and “l“ead us not into temptation”—we do it without much prompting.

If you’re like me, you have moments when it seems that all you ever pray about is yourself, your ambitions, and what you think God’s agenda should be. (Have you ever thought about what the disciples might have prayed for right after Jesus was arrested?) In Matt. 6, Jesus modeled first praying for the honor, rule, and will of God. My prayer often seems to be for the honor, rule, and will of Walt.

So…should we then just stop praying for our own needs? Of course not!

Scripture emphatically tells us to pray in faith and dependence upon the Father’s provision for daily needs. And we are to let our needs be known to God (Phil 4:6; see also James 5:14). To say that our needs don’t matter to God amounts to “worm theology” and denies the great value that God has placed upon us (evidence: the blood of His Son).

Perhaps the right question to ask, then, is: what constitutes our needs?

Jesus shows us how to approach this subject, both by His example and by His teaching. His example is clearly demonstrated in Gethsemane, when He prayed, “not My will but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). He taught it explicitly in John 12:23-26. There, Jesus announced to His disciples that the time had arrived for Him to be glorified—by going to the cross. He told them, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus here was talking about Himself. However, He stated it as a general principle, and reiterated that principle in the following statement: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

The principle can be stated this way: “The key to life is death.”

This principle is the basic principle of discipleship, and is often simply stated as “death to self.” When Jesus said, “not My will but Yours,” He vividly portrayed the nature of death to self. The easiest way to explain this principle is to say it means we place the Father’s will above our own. It does not mean that we simply ignore our own needs, but rather that we consciously and consistently put God’s interest, honor, rule, and will above and before our own.

The principle is stated in numerous ways:

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt 6:33, NIV). “If anyone wishes to come after Me…deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me” (Mk 8:34). “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice…” (Romans 12:1). “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

What about your needs? Seeking first His kingdom (putting your own on the altar) will enable you, through genuine spiritual wisdom, to get God’s perspective on your ambitions; then you can pray.