The answer is that it is generally the case that God places greater value on our learning the connection between prayer and provision than he does on meeting the need itself. Put differently, the reason God often does not just meet our needs, regardless of whether we pray, is that he is more concerned to secure our dependency on him, to prevent idolatry, to enhance our friendship with him, and to foster our co-laboring with him than he is to meet what is a legitimate, significant need. This is one