To begin, our Lord Jesus Christ said:
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.
Matthew 6:7
That statement has always confused many Christians. They keep on asking themselves: Why pray, when God already knows?
Below I give four reasons why we have to pray, even though God already knows what we need before we ask Him.
God wants us to constantly rely on Him.
2 Chronicles 16:7 says:
“At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.
Our Father in Heaven does not want us to rely on other gods.
Exodus 23:13 says:
Be careful to do everything I have said to you.
Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips”
Our Father in Heaven does not want us to rely on our human strength.
Jeremiah 17:5-8 says:
This is what the Lord says:
Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Our God wants us to call Him first, then he will answer.
Jeremiah 33:2-3 says:
“This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth,
the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name:
‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.
Why pray, when God already knows our problems?
