—Jacob Crouch
“Have you ever asked that question before? If God knows everything I need, and if God knows all of my thoughts, then what’s the point of asking. Before I really started to seek the Lord, my thoughts on prayer were, “Well, if God already knows, then I’ll just say, ‘Your will be done,’ and prayer time is over.” And while that might sound spiritual and submissive, it misses something important about prayer. More importantly it reveals something about our view of prayer. So, without actually answering the question, I want to expose what this mindset on prayer reveals.
You Think Prayer is About You
First, when we ask a question like that, it highlights that we think prayer is primarily about us. “Why pray if God knows what I need?” So you think prayer is all about what you need? Surely we need to, “draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16). But if you think prayer is simply about God on the other end of a self-help hotline, then you’ve missed something big about prayer. Our God is a gracious God who hears prayer (Psalm 65:2), but God was not created for us. On the other hand, we were created for Him (Col 1:16). So prayer is not about you.
What About Praise?
When we simplify prayer down to simply God fulfilling petitions, we turn prayer into a man-centered exercise. But what about praise? Weren’t we created for His glory? Read the Psalms; how many Psalms say, “Praise the Lord!” Prayer is more than petition. Even if God’s omniscience made petition irrelevant, that would still leave an eternal amount of time for us to fill our prayers with praise and worship! And I say “eternal” purposefully. How much time do we need to give God the glory that is due His name? “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’” (Rev 4:8).
So prayer is more than petition. And I said that I wouldn’t answer the main question, but I’ll give one suggestion: Why pray if God knows? Because God says so! “Pray then like this” (Matt 6:9). So however you want to understand God’s omniscient sovereignty and your prayer life, don’t be disobedient. Leave behind a self-centered, praise-less prayer life, and pray without ceasing.”