“Your Father knows what you need before you ask.” Matthew 6:8
God knows that we need all of the basics—food, shelter, clothing, family, love, healthy bodies and meaningful work. God is able to differentiate between what we truly need and the unnecessary, things that we want because we think they’ll make us happy.
In this Scripture Jesus seems to imply that God grasps our future needs, things we don’t yet know we lack because we haven’t yet faced the challenges that will point out to us how much we’re in need. But most gloriously, this phrase is a declaration of God’s thorough and intimate knowledge of us. It means that our Father is intimately acquainted with our personalities, our pasts, our current life situations and what’s weighing most heavily on our minds at this very moment.
The psalmist says it so eloquently, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” (Psalm 139:1–6)
Think about what you see as one of your greatest unmet needs right now. Speak with your Father about it, beginning with your thankfulness that He already knows what you need even better than you do. Then claim the following in prayer:
“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31–33)
