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Why should we pray? God already knows our hearts and our desires. So why pray? While the Bible does tell us to "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17)—is that reason enough? Let's explore a few other reasons for why we should pray.
We pray because we love:
A relationship of love is one of enjoying each other. If I say I love someone, but never speak to them, it is likely that I don’t have much of a relationship with them. If I love a person, then I will want to talk with them, spend time with them, and desire them. This is why we see Jesus in passages like Mark 1, "rising very early in the morning” to pray. He loves the Father. The Father loves Him, So, they spent time together.
We pray out of gratitude:
All that we have been given, all that we have received, is a gift from His hands. Prayer demonstrates and provides a vehicle for our offering gratitude. James says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17).
We pray because we want to know God more fully:
There is nothing more lovely, nothing greater our hearts can seek, and nothing more fulfilling than God. And as we speak with God, we get to know God more. As the Psalmist says, "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life" (Psalm 27:4)..
We pray to know our own hearts more fully:
There is a real benefit in coming before the Lord in silence. It is true that we get to know Him more fully in prayer, but we also get to know ourselves more fully. It’s common to recognize past misdeeds and sins that we had forgotten as we come before God. Like Peter on the rooftop, we are made aware that what we have believed or practiced or dreamed or sought is not right. Prayer lays open our hearts not only before God, but before ourselves.
We pray to be made like God:
Some have said that prayer's purpose is not so that we might change God, but so that God might change us. In prayer our hearts are shaped and molded, our affections are stirred, and our minds are transformed. The prayer closet is the school of holiness. One can enter as a slacker and emerge as a scholar.
We pray to acknowledge our dependence upon God:
We are not independent beings. As Paul preached at the Areopagus, "In him we live and move and have our being." We are and can be nothing apart from God. Prayer recognizes that. Ursinus once commented that, "Prayer is as necessary for us as it is necessary for a beggar to ask alms."
We pray to receive from God:
Jesus follows his teaching of the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11 with the story of the man who is awoken from bed by a friend who desires three loaves of bread. And Jesus says, "How much more the Father? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" We have a Heavenly Father, who loves to give.
We pray that God might receive glory:
When the lame man is healed in Acts 3 by the prayer of Peter, his response is to rise, leap in joy, and praise God. When God answers our prayers, we offer praise. God receives glory as men receive from Him and respond rightly.
Prayer is a gift from a God who loves to hear from us., and really there are countless more reasons we could have to pray. Below are a few resources that might help you think through prayer from a wider perspective.
Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Tim Keller
Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer by C.S. Lewis
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Article adapted from http://www.alliancenet.org/christward/9-reasons-to-pray
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