Be not therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
In prayer we have more immediately to do with God than in giving alms, and therefore are yet more concerned to be sincere, which is what we are here directed to. When thou prayest (Mat 6:5). It is taken for granted that all the disciples of Christ pray. As soon as ever Paul was converted, behold he prayeth.
Commenting on Matthew 6:5-8
8. For your Father knoweth This single remedy is sufficient for removing and destroying the superstition which is here condemned. For whence comes this folly of thinking that great advantage is gained, when men weary God by a multiplicity of words, but because they imagine that he is like a mortal man, who needs to be informed and solicited?
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him--and so needs not to be informed of our wants, any more than to be roused to attend to them by our incessant speaking. What a view of God is here given, in sharp contrast with the gods of the heathen!