The Lord Jesus assured His disciples: "...your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him." (Mat. 6:8) If such is the case, why is there a need to pray?
There are many answers, let me just give you some:
First, prayer is the God-ordained means by which we get our needs from God.
When God created the universe, He said: "I know already in advance the things that they will be praying for, but I will only answer their prayers if they pray to Me. I have ordained prayer to be the means by which they will obtain their needs from Me."
God will not act until we pray. That's why James says: "...you do not have because you do not ask." (Jas 4:2)
Second, God is teaching us dependence. Prayer is our declaration of dependence on God. He wants us to confess our need of Him. Every time we pray, we do so.
Third, He wants us to know Him up close and personal one on one. When we pray and we see the way how God works in our lives to answer specifically our prayers, we experience the privilege of knowing Him more fully one on one.
We experience the joy of knowing that God is interactive with us personally one on one. We experientially know that He truly cares for us in a personal one on one way. As a result, we become more thankful to Him. We glorify Him all the more. It grows and develops us more spiritually.
If God just gives us everything we need without us praying for it, these things would never be possible in our lives. We just take everything that God is doing to us for granted.
