“For your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 6:8 as he taught us on prayer. Those words are intended to bring us comfort. God’s not taken off guard by our needs and requests. He knows what we need and he’s prepared to act.
But maybe that verse brought another thought to your mind. If God already knows what we need before we ask, why bother praying at all? Does it even matter if we pray or not? This discussion gets us into questions of God’s providence. Providence isn’t a word we use all the time, but the Westminster Shorter Catechism defines it well. “God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.” Providence is the way that God acts in the world. It’s his righteous rule over all things.
Sounds like God has it all covered, right? But it’s important for us to remember that God usually works his providence through ordinary means. Think about it like this: How does a tree grow? We could give the short answer and say that God causes the tree to grow or we could give a long answer about photosynthesis. Both answers are true because God uses a natural process to grow the tree.
What does that have to do with prayer? James 4:2 says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.” There are things that God intends to give his people, but the means by which he intends to give them are our prayers. God’s waiting for us to ask. So James says, “If you don’t ask, you won’t get it.”
If God so desired, he could give us whatever we needed without our prayers – but we would miss out on a powerful opportunity to deepen our faith. Our prayers put to words two fundamental truths. First, we don’t have everything we need. We’re not God and we’re not capable of producing or accomplishing everything we need to thrive. But that leads us to the second one. God does have everything we need. He’s able and willing to provide for us. Every prayer is an expression of something that’s true of the whole Christian life. We are dependent on God and he’s faithful enough for our trust.
Brothers and sisters, don’t neglect prayer. Who knows what gifts we miss by not asking? Who knows what God has in store for our families, our church, and our community? We’ll only find out if we pray.