Why pray if God already knows everything?

PrayerIn theological review

The short answer

Because prayer was never mainly about informing God. Jesus says the Father knows our needs before we ask, and in the same breath teaches us to ask, because prayer is how children speak to a Father, how our wills are bent toward his, and one of the means he has chosen for doing his work in the world. A wise father who knows what his child needs still wants the child to come and ask. So does God.

The fuller answer

Jesus raises your objection before you do, inside the very passage that teaches prayer. Do not babble on like the pagans, he says, for they think that by their many words they will be heard. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. And then, knowing that, he teaches his disciples to ask. Information was never the point of prayer, so God's knowledge settles nothing against it.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Matthew 6:8 (BSB)

So what is prayer for? Relationship, first: a child who never speaks to his father may have a provided-for house, but not much of a family. Alignment, second: praying thy will be done trains the pray-er to want what God wants, which is one reason the asking changes the asker more often than it changes God's mind. And real asking, third: Jesus commands asking, seeking, and knocking, and promises the Father delights to give. God has chosen to do some things in answer to prayer that he would not do without it, and finding out why is less important than obeying the plain invitation.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7 (BSB)

The mature position is the one in the Lord's Prayer itself: ask boldly for today's bread, because he is your Father, and end in surrender to his will, because he is God. Both halves, every time.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

How should I pray?Simply, honestly, and to the Father, in the pattern Jesus gave. His own prayer starts with God's name, kingdom, and will, and only then asks for daily bread, forgiveness, and protection. Prayer is not a performance or a formula. It is talking to a Father who sees in secret, at whatever length the moment actually needs.Why doesn't God answer my prayer?Sometimes he has answered, and the answer was no, or not yet; sometimes our own refusal to listen or obey blocks the conversation; and sometimes heaven is silent for reasons we are not given, as it was for Paul and, in Gethsemane and on the cross, for Jesus himself. What Scripture never teaches is that unanswered prayer means an absent God, and the same Bible that records the silences commands us to keep asking, seeking, and knocking. Bring the unanswered prayer itself to him. That too is prayer.What is God like?God is spirit, eternal, unchanging, all powerful, holy, just, good, and true. And he is love. Scripture gives his character in his own words and deeds rather than in our guesses: he is the I AM who always is, the Maker who never tires, and the Father who so loved the world that he gave his Son.