Do not be anxious about anything—but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.  Philippians 4:6, TLV

Make Known to GOD.   Question: If GOD already knows everything, including our requests, why do we need to pray? Great question, right?

And when you are praying, do not babble on and on like the pagans; for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. (Matthew 5:7-8, TLV)

When Jesus taught His followers how to pray, how did He begin? “Our Father in heaven.” The answer to why do we need to pray? We pray because we can. It is a privilege hard won by our Father’s Son. Yeshua was humbled, humiliated, suffered, and died so that we could be adopted by the Creator of the Universe.

Let that one sink in: so we could be adopted by the Creator of the Universe.

So, this Creator of the Universe — which includes us — really does know us intimately. He knows our name (Isaiah 43:1) and the number of hairs (or follicles) on our head (Luke 12:7) and sees our heart. Therefore, He absolutely knows our needs, challenges, catastrophes, pain, anxiety — everything.

Maybe, because we know He knows us so well, we forget to pray — or we get lazy. It all boils down to relationship. Our Father wanted a relationship with us so badly that He sent His only Son (John 3:16). Salvation was the means to our adoption — Jew and Gentile. But this is only the beginning.

We pray because we are in relationship with the Creator of the Universe. Praying is  communication.

The prayer Jesus taught His followers (Matthew 6:9-13) is the template of communication:

• Reverence when we address our Dad.
• Acknowledgement of His sovereignty.
• Choosing His will and not our own.
• Asking for what we need.
• Humbling our hearts in repentance as we also forgive others.
• Asking for help in not following our own ways.
• And, asking for His guiding hand to take us away from temptations.

Then we seal these petitions with Yeshua’s name — the One who fought so hard to enable us to approach the throne room of El Elyon [the Most High GOD].

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to pray constantly. I believe that when we are truly in relationship with our Father, we’ll talk with Him all the time. Respectfully. Reverentially. Joyfully.

Still sometimes we need reminding we have this privilege, and Paul was kind enough to give us lots of reminders in his epistles. Good thing, right?