Take heed, then, how you pray. The Father knows your needs before you ask, yet He would have you ask with a right spirit. You thank Him for provisions, and that is good. But what is this “financial breakthrough” you seek? Is it to bridge gaps of necessity, to supply your daily bread, to keep your body in health and your family from hunger? That is a petition God delights to hear, for the body is His creature and we are to make provision for its needs, as I have said, using wine for the stomach’s sake and for often infirmities. But if by “breakthrough” you mean a sudden overflow of wealth, a swelling of comforts beyond what is needful, then beware. Do not make provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. The man who piles up riches is like one dreaming he is rich; when the day comes, his wealth vanishes, and his shame remains. This life is a sleep, and its treasures are dreams. Do you not see that those who set their hearts on such things are weighed down and cannot wake to the life that is truly life?
Pray, then, with wisdom. Ask for what is sufficient, and set your industry on spiritual things. The gaps in your living are not merely gaps of money but gaps of faith. Do you not know that the Lord fed thousands with a few loaves, and that the prophet’s flour and oil failed not? Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. I do not forbid you to pray for relief in your straits, but I charge you: let your prayer be for bread enough for the day, not for a storehouse of plenty to feed idleness and softness. For when you light up the flame of unnecessary desire, you turn provision into wantonness, and that is sin.
If you are in genuine need, God will not desert you. He cares for the sparrow; will He not care for His child? Bring your petition with a humble heart, not measuring His love by the fullness of your purse. The true riches are Christ within you, the pearl of great price, which you possess already if you have put on Christ in baptism. Let that be your treasure, and your heart will not be dragged down to the earth. I will pray with you that your necessities be met, that you may serve Him without distraction. But do not let your prayer be only for money. Pray to be delivered from the love of it, for that is a root of all evils. The breakthrough you truly need is a breakthrough of grace, to count all things as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus your Lord.