[Pastor Ralph]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8) If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make? Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?

[JanMary]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8) If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make? Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?

I'm still working ahead because I'll be gone for the next 2 weeks.

1)Just as communication with our spouse (or others) is how we grow in relationship and intimacy, prayer is how we grow as disciples of Christ. I believe He wants to hear us express our hearts to Him because He desires relationship with us. I have discovered that, part of the joy in knowing Him, is in seeing the answers to my prayers that He provides. And while He delights me with things I haven't asked for, like the amazing eclipse of the moon tonight, or the newborn colt just standing up for the first time as his mother stood proudly and protectively by, nudging him to stand, I'm encouraged and reassured by the specifics that I've prayed about and for which He sends the answer. I see His wisdom, and His Sovereignty in answers that are better for me than the ones I've prayed for, and more importantly He teaches me to be patient as I have to wait for answers....in one case I've been waiting since 1979, but as I waited, He changed me and my heart so that I could receive the answer in the right spirit when it came this year.

As a child who grew up in a violent, abusive home where both parents threatened to kill me at various times, my Heavenly Father's answers are comforting, and loving hugs, and signs of His constant, abiding love for me....and lets me know He values the time I spend talking to Him and worshipping Him. The people in my life are affirmed and feel valued as I listen to them, as I am when they listen to me. In the same way, I feel valued and affirmed when the God of the Universe turns His ear to me when I call. You can't have relationship in a vacuum....with others or with God.

[Tabatha]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8) If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make? Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?

This was a prayer The Holy Spirit gave me the beginning of the New Year.
I am writing this prayer because I felt the Holy Spirit wanted me to share for those who may need it.
Father I want to ask your forgiveness for my unbelief. I repent every way that my perspectives, mind sets, and beliefs have been out of your will. I repent for my backsliding and I want to make a new commitment to you. Lord Jesus. Please cleanse me, I want to be restored to the lamp of your first love.

Holy Spirit, Please come and expose any of the tactics and schemes that the enemy is using to keep me from possessing the Promised Land. Please reveal what could be standing between me and the promise. What's keeping me from the fullness of my destiny? What's keeping me from my inheritance, God?

I want to overcome the gaints and to militantly take what you have promised me and overcome every hindrance and obstacle. I want to be like Calab and Joshua who had the right perspective. They knew what a big, faithful God You are and that You would help thrie nation to dispossess the giants and then tak possession of the Promised Land.

Father I thank You for writing Your promises to me upon my heart. Today I am saying I am about to take my promises and go to war and stand against the gaints in the land of God,Give me wisdom and divine strategy to fight them. With Your help I can overcome! God I believe Your promises to me are true and I know That You have a great Plan, purpose, and destiny for me. Lord, I present myself to You as a Living Sacrifice. If you will send me to the nations and tell whoever will listen to the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In the name of Jesus, I take authority today over every spiritual stronghold! I stand against those gaints! Every tactic of the Devil! In the name of Jesus Christ, every gaint that is trying to hinder and block me, I command to get out of the way of the Holy One! In the name of Jesus Christ. I will no longer settle for less than Your perfect will! I will no longer be complacent! I am going to rise up and fight the good fight of Faith!

The weapons of my warfare are mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds. Father, let every gaint stronghold in my belief system come down now! Be destroyed now! I can do all things through Christ who strengths me! I am more than a conqueror in the name of Jesus! Amen! Glory to God In all things. Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!

[charisbarak]

We are asking because God has told us to ask Him. He wants us to be fully relying on Him and prayer draws us closer to God & closer to His will. It also gives us a chance to see where God has answered our prayers and to increase our faith.
Yes & no. Yes, we grow when we pray. No, God is there, He is listening & ready to answer & to see if we are praying with the right motives, attitude & honesty.

[Roxanne]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8) If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make? Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?

BECAUSE WE CAST ALL OUR CARES UPON THE LORD .. WE KNOW FROM PAST EXERPERIENCE HE IS ALWAYS THERE AND ANSWERS PRAYERS .. WE GO TO HIM WITH OUR FAITH... WE GO TO THE THRONE I N NSTEAD OF THE PHONE...WE ASK HIM BECAUSE HE IS OUR FATHER..WE KNOW WHEN WE TALK AND ASK HIM IT IS TAKING CARE OF ..IT IS OUT OF OUR HANDS..WE GAVE IT TO GOD!!WE TALK TO HIM BECAUSE OF OUR FAITH ..IT GIVES US PEACE OF MIND AND CALMNESS

[Cee]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8) If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make? Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?

Because God wnt us to talk to Him about allof our needs. Our prayers are an open communication line to God the Father and Jesus our intercesor and the Holy Spirit our comforter. No. I want to edify God and let God encourage me.

[Elwood C O'Dell]

Why pray? Because I need to have communication with my Father in Heaven. I need to talk with Him in order to find help with the various situations I face daily in my life. I pray so that my fellowship with the Father can continue to grow as He guides and teaches me through my time spent in communion and communication with Him. Prayer is the one of the keys that allows me to get to know Him better as our relationship grows. Prayer allows me to have a time with an “audience of One” and share in His love and express my love to Him. If my Master Jesus needed to pray, oh how much I need to pray. Much of prayer is also my being verbally quiet and just listening for His voice.

[love.serve.know]

We need to pray to be in agreement with God and to feel a sense of connection. Our prayer does edify and encourage us, but I'm sure God gets joy from seeing our hearts desire to spend time with Him.

[Soomee]

Yes, God knows our needs. If the prayer is to tell him what He needs to consider or do then we do not have to pray at all as he knows all our present and future needs. I consider prayer as an avenue of communication with God (not only we speak, he also talk to us in the form of putting some thoughts in our minds). God instructs us to have that sort of fellowship. Prayer also a kind of affirmation we provide to God to show that we are willingly partnering with Him on things that He is planning to do. It also allows us to elevate ourselves into the spiritual realms in which God operates.

[Stan]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8) If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make? Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?

It allows you to speak the feelings on your heart and by speaking we know that God hears and will answer. It is a means for us to build our confidence that God is real and is always there for us. It makes great sense when you consider that Jesus prayed while He was here, if He needed time in prayer to the Father then we should know that we toneed to take the time to speak to the Father of our souls.

[s8nfighter]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8) If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make? Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?

Yes God knows what we need long before we ask, that is why he made the earth as it is. He made it to supply all our needs. He is the one who waters, created the fertile soil, determined the air mixture, the salt in the ocean, and the cycle of river to ocean to rain for cleansing. He also gave us a list of rules to live by so we would not destroy ourselves in the process of living.
What sense does prayer make? Prayer is more than a list of meaningless and vain requests, it is recognizing who the supplier of our needs is and giving thanks. If prayer encourages us to be obedient, and lifts us to a higher standard of obedience, then it is a good thing.

Darrell

[TCook]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8) If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make? Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?

I am so glad that God knows all before we ask, but the reasoning behind asking is to receive that what we need. I believe its a process of God waiting to see if we actually know what we need from what we want and above all He wants us to understand that we should solely depend on Him.

Good question and I have asked by others and myself. I have found that prayer is human weakness recognizing divine strength. We cannot do anything without the help from God, I wouldn't be typing these remarks without the air to breath, a mind to think, the utilities paid, and the list goes on and on and on. Why keep telling someone (friends and family) that not able to help you, when you can tell the Creator of all about it and get an answer by and by. The only thing that don't always makes sense to many of us is the answer because it goes against everything we would do or say.

No we are to pray for everybody, its written "Whatever you would have the Father do unto you, pray that He will do it for the less of these also." (paraphased a little bit) Oh the prasie given unto the Lord by a non-beleiver when you pray for them and God answers the request. They didn't believe at first, but now they believe and are telling others about the miracles of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.

[jjj]

God has so much love and grace - we pray for us. Each time we pray it is like a communion it is acknowledging God as our strength, our provider, our councel etc. I find when I talk to a friend sometimes I say things that develop into an understanding of someone elses situation - it brings the truth out. Coupled with the word of God we are able to quite often come into the understanding of God's plan for us. This is huge.

[Lisa Rupert]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8) If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make? Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?
Why do I pray?
I pray for a constant communications with God, My Father, My Creator. I pray so that God and I can become a family and we can keep the lines of communications open and he can share in the decisions that I make in my life. I pray so that my Father and I can become close and develop a relationship. I pray so that I can praise my Father in Heaven. I pray because I am a sinner and I want to do what is right and show my Father who is in heaven that I want to be a part of him. I pray for many many reasons, my life couldn't exist if I didn't pray. I have always prayed to my Father from being as little as I can rememeber. I pray in my car, I pray at home, I pray at work, I pray before meals, I pray when I'm happy, I pray when I'm sad. I just want to have God in my life. I just can't imagine a life without God being in it. I pray for this world we live in, I pray for every creature that exist on this earth. I like talking to God and sharing my life with him. These are the reasons that I pray.

[Tabatha]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8) If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make? Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?

I pray, talk and communicate with God when I am lonely, When I need to be close to Him. He is my friend, He is my lover. When I just tell God how much I love Him He pours it back on me. Yes I talk to Him for self edification and encouragement when I am down.

I also talk to God re; difficulties of others. I talk to Him about Israel and the needs of the war over there. Yes God knows what I need before asking, The purpose of asking is putting pride aside and acknowledge Him as my provider and my dependance upon Him. I enjoy the intimaticy we have. I love the personal relationship we have. I am always excited when He gives me conversation back.
Pray is a two way conversation with God when we are still and listen. There are times when He does correct me and I have to repent. Those are time I am grateful He loves me so much He is not going to leave me where I am.

[June]

We need the communication with God. He knows what is best for us so let known the desires of the heart. We the faith to expect that He will give us those desires according to HIS WILL. Without prayer we become Stagnant.
We are to give praises, thanks & worship to God. We are to lift up our fellow man, not always thinking of ourselves and what we want.

[Patricia A]

Q4. (Matthew 6:8)

If God knows what you need before you ask him, why should you ask him at all? What sense does prayer really make?

One popular answer is that we pray more for our own benefit than God's.

Are we mainly to talk for our own edification and encouragement? Why or why not?

Prayer is not primarily speaking to hear ourselves talk (no matter how beneficial that may be).
Prayer is communicating with God. It is speaking to him. It is formulating our thoughts to him. And, more important yet, it is engaging him in conversation. Jesus wants us to learn to communicate with God.

[mags]

Prayer is the only way we have to communicate with God - it is talking with Him. (He can speak to us in different ways but prayer is our way to speak to Him.) As with close friends or spouses - often they know what is happening or how you feel about something yet you still talk about it with them - that is important for your relationship. If you didn't talk with them your relationship would soon break down. It is the same with God - it is important for our relationship with our Lord.

Once again - it is not all about us, so we are to pray for more than ourselves, we are to submit to God in prayer - offer ourselves to Him.

[JustJeff]

Prayer is about faith. The faith that the Father hears His children, listens carefully and responds. Prayer is about talking to God when there is no one else who can help or listen. Prayer is about trusting and loving the God of all creation, letting Him know that there are those of us who believe in Him and need Him to survive.

[emmaus]

God wants to spend time with us, to draw closer in a more personal relationship. He wants us to come before him with all our prayers and petitions, to recognize him as God.