Why does God make us pray?

One question that might have come to mind this Sunday as we talked about how disciples pray and what they pray for, taken from the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:7-15), is this: If God knows what we need even before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8), then what is the point of praying? Why does God wait for us to ask Him instead of just giving us what He knows we need?

That's a good question. And here is my attempt at a brief answer. The most important thing for us is not to simply have the things that we need, but to know and trust and love God. What could happen if God constantly gave us the things that we need without us ever having to pray for them? The Bible suggests some answers.

Deuteronomy 6:10-12 - “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

Proverbs 30:8-9 - “Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God.”

What do these scriptures seem to suggest? When things are going well for us, we are prone to forget God, which is about the worst thing that we could ever do. When things go well, we can begin to think that we are the reason that things are going well, or that there is just some law in the universe that makes things go well. But what does prayer do? It keeps us from forgetting God by reminding us that whatever good things we receive are given to us by God.

When God knows what we need before we ask him, but he often waits to give what we need until we ask him, he helps to keep us from forgetting him. At first, making us pray may seem stingy. But when we realize why God makes us pray, we realize that making us pray is one of the kindest things that God could do because it keeps us form one of the biggest mistakes we could ever make - forgetting God.