The purpose of prayer

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” Matthew 6:7-8
We can come across a verse like this and think, ‘Why bother praying, if God already knows what we need?’ Such a thought shows that we don’t really understand what prayer is all about. Prayer is not about informing God of anything – because He knows everything. He knows about your situation and your needs. He knows about the hurt you are feeling, the pressure you are under, the worries that you have. Neither is prayer about bringing a shopping list to God of things that we need, things that we want, or things that would be nice to have.
Prayer is God’s way of getting us to keep communicating with Him. Yes He knows what we need, but He has also said that the condition for us receiving it, is that we must ask Him (Matt. 21:22, John 16:24). In the model prayer Jesus gave His disciples, He instructed them to pray, “Give us today our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). We need to be coming to God regularly, frequently, daily, in prayer.
Prayer helps us to get our focus off ourselves and onto God. We know that God doesn’t answer prayers if we are holding on to sin in our hearts (Ps. 66:18-19), or if we ask with wrong motives (James 4:3), but He answers prayers that are in accordance with His will (1 John 5:14-15). As we pray, we develop God’s perspective and we are able to pray more effectively, because we can pray according to His will. Our will begins to conform to His. Prayer is not about us changing God’s mind about something; it’s about Him changing us into His image.