Sovereignty and Prayer
From time to time I hear people say, “If God is Sovereign, why pray?” I usually answer, “It is because God is Sovereign that I pray.”
I think the question comes more from a misunderstanding of God’s Sovereignty and usually that ends in a doctrine of fatalism. Fatalism is a view that our universe is mechanical…no matter what we do, things are going to happen as they were previously determined.
But the Bible presents God as personal and while He does accomplish His purposes, we are not puppets on a string. What we do matters and what we don’t do matters. The most comforting thing to me is God’s Sovereignty, but I am also comforted in the fact that He involves me in His plan. How does He do this?
I think God moves in His people to pray for the things He wants to accomplish. Forsyth said, “If our prayer reaches or moves Him it is because He first reached and moved us to pray.
That prayer that reached and moved us to pray. The prayer that reached Heaven began there, when Christ went forth.”
Admittedly that is deep, but our Sovereign God is moving through us. Think of Jonah…God calls him to go and preach to a pagan people because He wants to save them. He moved in the heart of an unwilling prophet and went to extreme measures to get him to there, but when he preached God forgave those who repented. A city was saved…not because of an evangelistically minded prophet who had a heart for the nations, but because of a God who had a heart for the nations. He moved in Jonah and accomplished His purposes.
Does He do the same in us? Yes. You feel a burden to pray for a lost co-worker, or a crazy neighbor, or a student who just doesn’t seem savable, and after a while you see God move. From where does that prompt to pray come? It comes from God. God wants us to be involved in His plan and when we pray accordingly our relationship with Him grows deeper. Listen to His voice and pray His heart back to Him.
When I was finishing my degree at Jacksonville State University, I would drive the 100-mile round trip five days a week. One day, God laid it on me to pray for a family in a mobile home on the side of highway 431. Every day for almost 2 years I prayed for that home going and coming. Every single day.
I wish I could tell you what happened there. I never felt the prompt to stop. I often asked God if He wanted me to, but I always sensed He just wanted me to pray. I’m sure what He did in answer and probably will never know on this side of Heaven, but He opened a door of understanding for me…He prompts, I obey, and He accomplishes His will.
Someone will say, “Well what if you didn’t do it?” God used a donkey to speak…I’m sure He would have gotten someone else to pray, but I know this…my prayer life grew on that highway. Listed to His voice and pray!
I think the question comes more from a misunderstanding of God’s Sovereignty and usually that ends in a doctrine of fatalism. Fatalism is a view that our universe is mechanical…no matter what we do, things are going to happen as they were previously determined.
But the Bible presents God as personal and while He does accomplish His purposes, we are not puppets on a string. What we do matters and what we don’t do matters. The most comforting thing to me is God’s Sovereignty, but I am also comforted in the fact that He involves me in His plan. How does He do this?
I think God moves in His people to pray for the things He wants to accomplish. Forsyth said, “If our prayer reaches or moves Him it is because He first reached and moved us to pray.
That prayer that reached and moved us to pray. The prayer that reached Heaven began there, when Christ went forth.”
Admittedly that is deep, but our Sovereign God is moving through us. Think of Jonah…God calls him to go and preach to a pagan people because He wants to save them. He moved in the heart of an unwilling prophet and went to extreme measures to get him to there, but when he preached God forgave those who repented. A city was saved…not because of an evangelistically minded prophet who had a heart for the nations, but because of a God who had a heart for the nations. He moved in Jonah and accomplished His purposes.
Does He do the same in us? Yes. You feel a burden to pray for a lost co-worker, or a crazy neighbor, or a student who just doesn’t seem savable, and after a while you see God move. From where does that prompt to pray come? It comes from God. God wants us to be involved in His plan and when we pray accordingly our relationship with Him grows deeper. Listen to His voice and pray His heart back to Him.
When I was finishing my degree at Jacksonville State University, I would drive the 100-mile round trip five days a week. One day, God laid it on me to pray for a family in a mobile home on the side of highway 431. Every day for almost 2 years I prayed for that home going and coming. Every single day.
I wish I could tell you what happened there. I never felt the prompt to stop. I often asked God if He wanted me to, but I always sensed He just wanted me to pray. I’m sure what He did in answer and probably will never know on this side of Heaven, but He opened a door of understanding for me…He prompts, I obey, and He accomplishes His will.
Someone will say, “Well what if you didn’t do it?” God used a donkey to speak…I’m sure He would have gotten someone else to pray, but I know this…my prayer life grew on that highway. Listed to His voice and pray!
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