Concerning our prayers to our Father, it is recorded in Isaiah:
Isaiah 65:24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
And Jesus said that our Father knows what we have need of even before we ask, implying that we don’t even have to ask; He said we are not to worry about anything (Matthew 6:8,25). He also said that we can ask for and receive whatsoever we desire —and that when we pray, believing that we have what we are praying for, we shall have it (Mark 11:24).
We have several recorded instances of Jesus Himself praying. Once (at the raising of Lazarus) He said that He knew He already had what He wanted but that He was praying for the sake of those present (John 11:41-42). Ordinarily He just said Thank You, Father
for what was about to come into visibility.
Perhaps the most familiar prayers of Jesus are what we know as the Lord’s Prayer
(which was a response to the disciples’ request that Jesus teach them how to pray) and His prayer that we know as the High Priestly Prayer
which is recorded in John 17.
Jesus of course knew that both these prayers were answered before He even prayed and therefore wasn’t beseeching God to hear and answer; He was recognizing the answer that was already there and expressing His belief that it was there. These prayers are therefore recorded for our encouragement and edification. They show us what we can expect from our Father —what we can recognize as having already been accomplished in our lives— as it was in the life of Jesus.
From The Lord’s Prayer we know that God’s kingdom has already come on earth as it has in heaven —for the kingdom of God is within us and is visible in the earth when we believe that we receive the answer to this prayer. From the prayer recorded in John 17 we know that we are glorified with the glory that we had with the Father before this world became a part of our consciousness (v 5) —if we can just believe it. We know that we are in the world but not of it (v 14), that we are one with the Father just as Jesus was (vv 11, 22-23), that we are full of joy (v 13), that we have been set apart (v19) and sent by God into this world (v 18) —the God who loves us just as He loved Jesus (v23)— and that we are protected from evil (v 15).
These are not requests that we must beg God to fulfill, but rather already finished activities of God in the life of each of us that we must believe to experience. And these are but a few examples of all that
1Corinthians 2:9 Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
Notice that it is all already prepared, just waiting to come into manifestation when we pray, believing that we receive.
What we want to understand is that when we pray, we are not begging God to do something, but rather recognizing and thanking God for that which has already been done.