Transcription
Um, what is the relationship between prayer and God's sovereignty? Specifically, um, whether a prayer changes God's will or makes something more likely to happen. Like, for example, if you're praying, um, to heal the sick or for a person's salvation, um, and if God has already elected or predestined who to be saved, um, then why do we pray? Or does our prayers matter?
Yeah, it's really a, a very, very good question, Crystal. Um, and we have no doubt about the fact that God is sovereign, right, over everything. The way to understand that question is this. You have illustrations in scripture of somebody praying and God withholding judgment. You have illustrations of, uh, people praying and God bringing rain in answer to, to their prayers. From our viewpoint, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man produces much. James 5, right? The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person has a powerful impact. God hears and answers prayer. In fact, we are told to pray without ceasing. We heard that. We know that God hears our prayers. And prayer is, in, in some sense, the, the power that moves the muscles of omnipotence.
The way to understand it is this: God is sovereign, but he works through means. God saves sovereignly, but not apart from faith. Okay? God sanctifies sovereignly, but not apart from obedience. God acts sovereignly, but not apart from prayer. So God has ordained means by which his sovereignty operates. If you don't believe, you will not be saved. If you don't obey, you will not be sanctified. If you don't pray, you won't see the hand of God. God ties his sovereign operation to the means, and prayer is the means he has chosen.
You say, "Well, if, if I don't pray, God may do the same thing." This is true. If you don't pray, he may do the same thing, but you won't receive the benefit of it because you haven't been involved. If the Lord has determined to save someone, name written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world, he will save that person. If you pray, you become the mean, means by which God saves that person. If you don't, the prayers of someone else become the means that he uses, and you then are outside of that.
Look at it this way. If you pray and pray and pray for the salvation of someone and they are saved, you, you receive the blessing, right? Yours is the joy beyond, beyond someone who wasn't involved. If, if someone is converted to Christ and you haven't prayed for them, um, you're, you're thankful, but not at the level you would be if you had been constantly interceding for that person.
Now, keep in mind that our Lord said that when we pray according to his will, he hears us and he acts. So it's always according to his will. It's always within the framework of his sovereign will. So we are always saying, "Lord, do your will and allow me, in my prayers, to be a part of what you use to bring about that will, so that you may be blessed." So praying is really taking seriously the privilege of being a means by which God does his sovereign work. The idea then in prayer is to line up with the purposes of God and pray according to his perfect will.
When, um, our Lord gave that promise, I'll, I'll read a verse. When the Lord gave that promise, he said that if you ask anything in my name, the Father will do it, that he may be glorified. What does it mean "in my name"? This is John 14:13. "If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." What does it mean "in my name"? Consistent with his will. So we acknowledge God's sovereignty. We also rejoice with the privilege of being engaged in the means. And by the way, the benefit of the application of that means is the sheer joy and privilege of communion with God. Okay, good question. Thank you.