Here’s a question I was asked recently: If God is sovereign… knows everything before it happens… and is in complete control of all things… then why pray?

#1. Jesus commanded it when He said… “WHEN you pray…” (Mt 6:5-6), not “IF you pray.”  Jesus gave an example to follow by constantly engaging in prayer.  Jesus taught his followers how to pray in the Model Prayer.  All the other New Testament writers mention their own prayers to God and encouraged their readers to pray in their writings.

#2. God has chosen to act in response to our prayers.  He doesn’t have to accomplish His will that way, it’s the way He’s chosen to accomplish it.

#3. Prayer is good for us… it reminds us who is God and that we are dependent upon Him for all things.

#4. All true prayer originates from God as a burden on the heart of a believer (In other words… God determines to do something through weak people in answer to prayer so that HE will get the glory)… THEN the believer prays… but because he cannot access God on his own, he prays in Jesus’ name… and because we don’t know how to pray as we should, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words… which means the prayer returns to where it originated (God the Father) who answers the prayer to accomplish what He purposed to do to begin with.  Thus HE gets all the glory! (T.W. Hunt)

Those are some of the reasons we are to pray…