Prayer and God’s Sovereignty (Part 1)

The story is told about a small town in the south. For many years, this town had been “dry” in that no alcohol was ever sold or served there. But one day a businessman in the area decided to build a tavern. In response to this new tavern, a group of Christians from a local church became concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. Shortly after the prayer meeting that night, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

In the aftermath of the fire, the owner of the tavern sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible for his loss. But the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. After his initial review of the case the presiding judge began the trial with an official statement. He said: “No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear: the tavern owner believes in prayer, and the Christians do not.”

I believe one of the reasons we don’t pray as often as we ought is lack of belief that God can and will actually do what we ask if we ask according to His will. We don’t take responsibility for praying! And we like to dismiss the power of prayer by asking a paralyzing question: “Does it matter if I pray? Why petition or intercede if God will do what He wants? Why request anything from Him when He had already ordained?” We ask these questions and we take them to an unfortunate conclusion that prayer is not that important. Therefore, we demonstrate to God we don’t believe in the power or validity of prayer.

Here is the 2-sided tension I am speaking of:

1. God is sovereign. God knows everything. God has planned and ordained all things to occur. And He does whatever He wants. Psalm 139:4 – “.” Isaiah 46:9-11 – “.”He is infinite in His knowledge. He knows all things perfectly that have occurred or will occur. He knows every possible outcome. He knows the future. He never learns or forgets. He is perfectly omniscient.So God knows every thought, word and deed we will ever perform. And on top of that, He has already ordained everything. There is nothing that will ever happen that He doesn’t already know about or planned in history.

2. Despite the fact that He knows everything that is in our hearts and minds and He knows everything we will think or say before we think or say it and He knows every word that will be in our prayers, He still commands us to pray.  Prayer is a means to move God. The Bible is not unclear when it comes to prayer. The Bible tells us prayer should be a part of our Christian life.

So the question remains: Why am I praying to God making requests to Him that He planned out long before I was even born? Doesn’t God know what I will ask before we do? Why do I need to pray? Don’t my prayers tell Him something He already knows? Can I change the mind of God? Since God knows best, won’t He do what He wants and not what I ask? Is God obligated to answer prayer? This is a biblical tension that has challenged my thinking for quite some time and I have enjoyed exploring what the Word of God says about this subject and I hope you will too.

We are going to ask the question, “Why do I need to pray if God is sovereign?” And the Bible gives us nine foundations or reasons that I believe sum up what the Bible would say to such a question. My prayer is that regardless of how you look at these foundations, you will walk away convinced of the importance and necessity power of prayer. In tomorrow’s blog post, we begin considering these reasons.

W. Bingham Hunter, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 49.