There can’t be a answer without a question. Could there be “answers” in the back of a math book without any problems in the front? There must be a question.
As generous as our Father is, he cannot do the asking and seeking for us. The one with the need is one who has to try on the answer, just as the one with the hunger is the one who has to eat. .
But once the question is asked or the request is made, and once we actually go looking and trying things on, he answers. He doesn’t hide from our questions. He isn’t like that. He is generous. He asks us to ask. It is a command. He isn’t reluctant to answer. Answering is what he does. He is the Great Answerer in the universe, “quick to hear the cries of his people and to answer their prayers.”
But if he is generous and sees our need, why pray? Isn’t He always aware, always watching? Yes, but when we pray, something wonderful happens. Something wonderful happens when a baby begins to smile and coo. The connecting of eyes, the response to the parent’s voice, the sweet effort to speak, these put the relationship on a whole different level. Prayer connects us to him who wishes to be more than a guardian. He seeks the bond of friendship.
When we open the conversation, when we invite him to us and plead for His attention, he is no longer waiting for personal contact between himself and his child. When we break the silence, the contact has begun. ~~~Wayne E. Brickey, A Year of Powerful Prayer: (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013), p. 146-7
