Pray, Even Though God Can Read Your Mind

"For your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Matthew 6:8

When Jesus spoke these words he was talking about prayer. Prayer is essential to our everyday spiritual growth. I think that we all understand that God is all-knowing and all-seeing. He knows our thoughts, motives and actions without us having to tell him about them. However, even though God knows what we are going to pray about before we even begin to pray, we still need to pray! There have been times before when this seemed confusing to me. Now I know the importance of spending time with God in prayer.
Prayer allows you to have a conversation with God where he can impress things upon your heart. This creates a two-way conversation that is going to be much more beneficial than just having God read your mind.
I am reading a book right now called These Tangled Threads by Judith Miller and Tracie Peterson. In the book there is a girl who is trying to explain the importance of prayer to an unbelieving man who thinks that her prayers are just telling God things He already knew. She told the man that her prayers allow her to tell God directly that she needs His help and wants Him to speak to her through the Holy Spirit. This creates a situation where she is relying on God to see her through her trouble because she has already spoken to Him about the problem and sought His intervention. (I haven't finished the book, so I will let you know how things turn out with the guy later!)

Today is Tuesday! Take time for yourself and pray!