Why do we put our prayers into words when we ask for something? Is it to tell God what God doesn’t know? If God is God, God knows. Is it to ask God to change his mind? No, God doesn’t really change his mind from day to day like we do. Is it to ask God to treat us as favourites in a special way, or that we bargain with God? But we’re told in the scriptures that ‘God has no favourites’ (Rom 2:11). So why do we put our prayers into words or petitions and intercessions? It’s not to inform God, but it’s to remember what Jesus tells us ‘your Heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask’. And if we could really understand that and put that into practice it would give new life, new depth, meaning to all the forms of prayer that bring us along our way and bring us to discover our holiness.
Christian Life in the Light of Christian Meditation 2: Holyness by Laurence Freeman OS
