On Prayer

This is a short section out of Desiring God by John Piper that I wanted to share. It really hit me tonight since I've been thinking a lot about what prayer is and its importance:

"Jesus says to the woman, 'If you just knew the gift of God and who I am, you would ask Me - You would pray to Me!' There is a direct correlation between not knowing Jesus well and not asking much from Him. A failure in our prayer life is generally a failure to know Jesus. 'If you knew who was talking to you, you would ask Me!' A prayerless Christian is like a bus driver trying alone to push his bus out of a rut because he doesn't know Clark Kent is on board. 'If you knew, you would ask.' A prayerless Christian is like having your room wallpapered with Saks Fifth Avenue gift certificates but always shopping at Goodwill because you can't read. 'If you know the gift of God and who it is that speaks to you, you would ask - you would ask!

And the implication is that those who do ask - Christians who spend time in prayer - do it because they see that God is a great Giver and that Christ is wise and merciful and powerful beyond measure. And therefore their prayer glorifies Christ and honors His Father. The chief end of man is to glorify God. Therefore, when we become what God created us to be, we become people of prayer."