What’s the Point of Praying?
If God knows already knows everything, why talk to Him?
For many years, I struggled with this question: Why should I pray? God knows everything. He knows my heart better than I do. He will accomplish His will regardless of what I ask for. So what’s the point? I can’t tell Him anything He doesn’t already know.
Since then, I’ve come to view prayer differently. I now see that it’s a two-way conversation and an opportunity to examine ourselves. It’s an opportunity to grow within ourselves and with God.
God wants a conversation with us
Over and over again, the Bible shows us God in conversation with individuals. All the way back to the beginning, with Adam and Eve, he had conversations with us. He spoke to Moses, Abraham, Noah, and others.
These were two-way conversations. They weren’t a matter of God talking and us listening. There was a back-and-forth, a conversation. Here is just a small part of a conversation between God and Moses.
God called out to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!”
“Here I am,” he answered.
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:4–5, NIV)
