He knows what we need

"Your Father knows what you need before you ask him." [Mt 6:8]

I believe this verse. God knows exactly what I need: when I need a haircut, when I need a hug, when I need rest, or a better job, or a milkshake. He knows that I have a calcium deficiency, and a scatterbrain. He knows I need solitude, or sun, or someone to talk to. He is the Friend I need.

So I don't need to ask him and beg and plead and multiply words to get what I need from him, unless I think he is stingy or hard to convince.

Why then should I ask at all for the things I need? Perhaps I should not ask him for anything for myself, but only pray for others and their needs. But he knows the needs of others perfectly well. Why do I need to pray for others any more than for myself?

Perhaps we are commanded to pray, albeit with few words, because God wants us to determine before Him what we and others need. Truly, when we struggle in prayer, God helps us and reveals his will to us and shows us what we really need, as opposed to what we just want---which often is the wrong thing. Demanding just whatever we want is the mark of a spoiled child, not a mature one. So prayer helps us sort it out and become less demanding, more cooperative and gracious, more generous to others and less greedy for our own gain.

And, perhaps, there is something more: I think prayer gives us a place to glorify God. As we spend time in prayer, we put all the onus on God to DO THINGS. While the world says "Help yourself", God says, "Cast all your cares on Me, as I care for you." When we truly depend on Him in prayer, suddenly he answers (as He promises) and we are helped supernaturally to do what others could not have imagined us ever accomplishing.

The reason I have so little outward fruit (or success, or gain) is that I spend so little time in prayer, so little real "closet time" alone with Him.

Lord, help me to devote myself to prayer, not just haphazardly saying a few words now and then, but daily going "into the closet and shutting the door." For so long I have just gotten by on accidental prayer. Help me to become a prayer warrior, rather than a prayer tourist. IJNA