Why Do We Pray? part 3 of 4

Hey guys,

I apologize for the delay in posting, but the blog service is giving me a hard time. I’m emailing this one in. Hopefully it will work.

For Review, here’s my outline for Why We Pray:

• Because We Can
• Because Prayer Changes Us
• Because Prayer Teaches About God’s Sovereignty
• Because God Answers Prayer

Part 3 of our series is the point that God led me to in my own soul-searching. After examining my own reasons for not engaging in prayer often enough, I discovered that I have a tremendous propensity towards spiritual fatalism. I know that God is going to do whatever He wants, so why bother praying? Is it possible to “change God’s mind?” Is His will in any way malleable?

These questions and more helped me to realize the third reason for why we pray:

3. Because Prayer Teaches us About God’s Sovereignty

We took some time on Sunday to read some passages that help define God’s sovereignty. I won’t take the time to discuss them here, but these are the verses we looked at:

Job 42:2; Psalm 33:11; Proverbs 19:21; Isaiah 14:24

I ran across a sermon series by Dr. John MacArthur (1, 2) that helped me tremendously put all of my thoughts into words. He refers to God’s sovereignty thus: “God’s sovereignty is defined by the fact that He knows the plan and He has the power to work the plan. He has perfect knowledge so there’s nothing to change the plan. He doesn’t need us to give Him more information and He doesn’t react to circumstances.”

This is very encouraging in that when we come before him with the tragedies and turmoil of life, God is not surprised.

But at the same time, doesn’t God’s sovereignty sort of cancel out our need for prayer? After all, what can we do to change God’s plan?

We need to remember that we are told to pray (Luke 11:2-4). So, if we are supposed to pray, but God is sovereign, there must be a reason.

If God is sovereign, and he has ordained the end result for all of His plans, then why do we pray? And the answer is because God has not only ordained the end; He has ordained the means to the end.

This is where the rubber hits the road in the age-old equation of God’s will and man’s responsibility. God, for some strange reason, has chosen to have us play a part in methods of His divine will – and prayer is just one example. It is like everything else God has ordained.

For example, salvation: The end result is that God ordained your salvation before the foundation to the world. But the means to that end is your faith and repentance.

For example, sanctification: God’s will is that we be sanctified – made Holy and more like Him. The means to achieve this is our obedience.

In both cases, our responsibility and the efforts on our end of the bargain are part of God’s sovereign plan.

MacArthur puts it this way: “It’s not about changing God’s mind. It’s not about changing God’s plans. It’s not about giving Him information He doesn’t have. It’s not about a tweaking of the circumstances that He might not have anticipated. It’s simply about being used by God.”

Take heart that God’s plan is not altered by any crisis in our lives. Meditate on the marvel that God promises to reward us for our faithfulness in being the means to His end.