I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks, be made for all men:
Prayer is so important because it invites God into the situation we pray about and it secures His working on behalf of those in need. Paul did not deal with the reason God has incorporated prayer into His sovereign control of the universe here. He assumed his readers understood this since God has revealed this elsewhere in Scripture. His point here was that Christians must not fail to take advantage of this supernatural resource at their disposal by neglecting prayer.