Six reasons to pray even though God already knows what we need.

“Jesus: “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this, ‘Our Father…’” (Matthew 6:7-8)”

You can’t have your cake and eat it – everyone knows this. Either you have your cake or you scoff away like the proverbial ‘fat kid on a cake’. This is the dilemma Biblical Christians face when it comes to prayer. If we pray like pagans we wouldn’t have this dilemma. Pagan prayer is about manipulating the gods into giving us what we want. God can’t be manipulated and our method of praying has no effect on His answer. (see the previous 500 words).

So, if God can’t be manipulated and Jesus says, ‘your Father knows what you need before you ask him…’, why bother praying? God looks after us in a million ways without us even asking Him – (seriously, who prays every time they get in a car?) – why bother praying?

Because prayer is about relationship, not outcomes. We pray to enjoy the Giver not the gifts. Pagan prayer is focused on outcomes. Christian prayer is focused on the One we pray to, irrespective of the result.

Secondly, prayer makes us grow in holiness because it convicts us of sin. If we pour out all our desires before God soon we’ll see which desires are evil: the desires we can’t ask Him for. If we can’t ask God for something that thing isn’t good for us.

Thirdly, prayer engenders gratitude. If we ask God for things we already have, we end up grasping the truth that He gave them to us and so we experience the joy of gratitude. Its hard for most people in Australia to pray, ‘give us this day our daily bread’ knowing we’ll get it anyway. But ask God for your bread and see how your gratitude grows.

Praying also grows our awareness of how kind God is. Pray for safety as you drive down the Freeway, knowing that you’ll probably be safe anyway, and then see how your awareness of His constant kindness grows.

Fifthftphhfly (number 5), prayer makes us enjoy our stuff even more. I can go kitesurfing without prayer and really enjoy it just like all the not-yet Christians around me do. But if I pray and ask God for a good session, I will enjoy it that much more! By praying we grow our awareness of God in everything and because we love Him, we enjoy everything more. You can eat a chocolate that you bought or you can eat a chocolate your lover bought for you. One will be sweeter than the other.