ADDITIONAL STUDIES IN PRAYER

Copyright © Rosemary Bardsley

STUDY SIX: DIFFICULTIES IN UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF PRAYER

A. PRAYER AND THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

It is clear from Scripture that God is sovereign: that he is the Lord of all who works all things according to his eternal purpose.

In the above references the sovereign purpose/will of God is mentioned in relation to [1] his dealings with the nations, [2] his eternal plan of salvation, and [3] his incorporation of individuals into that salvation.

In other references God's sovereign control is seen in his ability to take hold of people and actions that are in direct opposition to his will and purpose and use those people and actions in his will and purpose:

To some people the concept of God's sovereignty makes prayer redundant: if God is sovereign, if he has everything already planned, and will bring his plan to pass, no matter what, then, why pray?

In answer to this very real problem it is necessary to state:

A.1 Unless God is sovereign ALL prayer is meaningless and worthless.

There is absolutely no point in praying to a god who is not in charge of the universe, because such a god would have neither the authority nor the ability to do anything to bring about the things we pray for. This one fact ought to be sufficient to silence the problems that God's sovereignty raises. Better to have a God who has the authority and ability to answer prayer, and leave us puzzled, than have no mysteries and no realistic expectation of answers.

A.2 There are some things that are fixed that no amount of praying can alter.

We cannot, for instance, pray that God will reduce the sinfulness of sin, or do away with hell; nor can we pray that he will act contrary to his character and contrary to his moral law. We cannot pray that he will change the rules. We cannot pray that he will provide a way of salvation other than the way he has provided, that he will, perhaps, open a back door to heaven through which some might enter. He has his plan for eternal salvation through Christ and the establishment of his eternal kingdom: towards this plan and purpose the whole of history moves. That cannot be changed.

A.3 There are other things that are God's stated intention, but can be changed by prayer.

Evidence of this:

1. God intended to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sin. At Abraham's pleading, God agreed that if as few as ten righteous men were found there, he would not destroy the cities (Genesis 18:16-33).
2. God's stated his intention to destroy the idol-worshipping Israelites and make a nation from Moses' descendants. Moses intervened and 'the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened' (Exodus 32:7-14).
3. When the people refused to enter the promised land because they were afraid of the giants, the Lord similarly said he would destroy them and make a great nation out of Moses. Then Moses again interceded on their behalf, and the Lord forgave them as Moses asked (Numbers 14:11-20).
4. The Israelites, contrary to God's stated ideal that he should be their King, persisted in their request for a human king so they could be like the surrounding nations. God finally instructed Samuel to give them a king, even though having a king would not be the best thing for them (1 Samuel 8:4-22; 10:17-25). (This should warn us against persisting in prayer for something that is our will, not God's.) [Note that, even though kingship was not God's ideal will for Israel, God wove it into his eternal plan: God later used King David not only to lead his people in glorious victories, but also to reveal his truth in the Psalms, and, greater still, to be a prophetic 'type' of Christ. God's sovereign power and authority is clearly seen in this.]
5. God announced judgement on Ahab for his wickedness. On hearing of it Ahab repented in deep humility. The judgement was delayed so that it did not fall during Ahab's lifetime (1 Kings 21:20-29).
6. The prophet Isaiah was told by the Lord to tell Hezekiah to put his house in order because he was going to die. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord about it, and the Lord promised to add a further fifteen years to his life (2 Kings 20:1-11).
7. God purposed to overturn Nineveh because of the wickedness of its inhabitants, but, when they repented, the announced destruction did not fall (Jonah 3:1-4:2).
8. Some of the miracles performed by Jesus Christ superseded the fixed, natural, physical laws that God has embedded into creation, and by which creation normally functions.

A.4 We must be careful not to confuse sovereignty with fatalism or determinism.

Determinism understands that all events, including all human actions, are the results of (that is, determined by) antecedent causes.

Fatalism understands that fate pre-determines and controls everything that happens, that everything that happens is inevitable. We cannot do anything to change our destinies. Human choice is meaningless.

When Christians confuse the Biblical teaching that God is sovereign with these two isms, they have a perverted understanding that puts 'God' in the place of 'antecedent causes' and 'fate' in the above definitions, and have joined ranks with astrology, Islam and Hinduism.

Such a perverted understanding of divine sovereignty results in the following misconceptions which are far from Biblical truth:

1. that it is useless to pray.
2. that God has predetermined everything.
3. that God is to blame for all the bad things that happen.
4. that God is arbitrary, uncaring and impersonal.

If we push this confused perception further we end up with no human responsibility for sin and evil, which is obviously very far from Biblical truth.

In contrast to both fatalism and determinism Jesus Christ actively worked against sin, suffering and evil; he saw no difficulty in interfering with and changing the state of affairs, expressing compassion, distress and anger when confronted with anything that is on this earth because of sin and/or Satan, and he stated clearly that the things he did - those miracles that changed the status quo - were the work of God. Thus the words and the works of Jesus forbid us to understand God's sovereignty as meaning that everything that is is 'God's will' and is locked in with no possibility of change.

Thus the words and actions of Jesus the Son, which precisely express the mind of God the Father, give us the freedom to pray. Not only this, but they also give us the hope that it is reasonable to expect that God, in his Fatherly goodness, can and will intervene and change the status quo - in one way or another, within the boundaries of his vast eternal purpose.

A.5 Because divine sovereignty does not mean fatalism or determinism, we can be sure that not everything is locked in.

We need to view 'God's will' not as something static and fixed like a steel girder or a concrete roadway, but as a great flowing river moving steadily and inexorably in and towards his purpose, constantly embracing this and that and the other thing and sweeping them along in itself, so that all these things also become incorporated into that purpose, whether they like it or not.

Representing it another way, we have:

It is obvious from this diagram that most human choices are made outside of God's purpose for human life - which is that we are created to reflect his glory, to image his nature - and are therefore contrary to his 'will'. Only one man, Jesus Christ fully lived according to this purpose, within this circle, in his own personal choices.

It is also evident that the choices made outside this circle impact those who live, or strive to live, with choices within this circle. In this way the choices of the Jews, of Judas, of Pontius Pilate, impacted the life of Jesus Christ. These choices, contrary to God's will for human life, are nevertheless within the boundary of his control, and are swept up and woven into his eternal purpose and used to bring that purpose to pass. God can do this because all things are with the boundary of his control. These choices also are within God's knowledge for he sees and knows all things even before they happen.

How does this relate to prayer?

• We cannot pray for something that does not exist - something that is not actually possible - we cannot ask God to make a square circle, or to make 2+2 = 5. All things are possible to God, as the Scripture says, but a square circle is not anything, nor is 2+2=5 anything.
• 'However, God can take our squares and make them into his circles.' (Vishal Manglawadi 'Letters to a Post-modern Hindu' p.24f). He can take our 2+2 and add his 1 to it to make 5 for us.
• Because the suffering caused by human sin is not his perfect creative will for human life, we can pray for his intervention without any thought that to pray such a prayer is to act contrary to his will. Evil and suffering are contrary to God's will, they are here only by default - the words, attitudes and actions of Jesus Christ demonstrate this beyond question, as do the promises concerning the removal of all suffering in the eternal kingdom. Thus, it is reasonable and right to pray for God's help in the presence of suffering, with the expectation that he both can and will do something to relieve our suffering in some way or other, and also bring good out of it.
• At the same time we realize that in this life we will never be free from the impact of wrong choices - both ours and others'. Even Jesus, who lived his life 'at the centre of God's will', was not immune from suffering caused by others' sinful choices. To expect, as some do, that God will make our lives free from all kinds of suffering, to expect perfect relationships, trouble-free parenting, perfect health and limitless wealth, in our current earthly existence, is to ask God to make earth heaven. That he will not do. But we can expect him to use suffering for our good and for his glory, for that he has promised; we can expect him to limit our suffering to what we can bear, and to rescue us from the suffering before it becomes too much for us to bear, for that he has also promised; we can pray that he will change our circumstances, according to his will, for that he has given us the liberty to do.
• We can, in fact, pray to him concerning anything in the space between the two circles, and concerning any impact that the small dots in that space have upon us, our loved ones, our churches and our nation, as he has told us to do.
• And we can certainly ask him to enable us to do anything within the inner circle, for everything there is exactly what he created human life to be.

B. THE PROBLEM OF 'UNANSWERED' PRAYER

Most questions concerning unanswered prayer can be resolved by checking out the boundaries for prayer in the previous study:

• Are we praying to the one true God?
• Do we believe in this one true God?
• Is our praying God-oriented or self-oriented?
• Did we leave the answer in his hands (his will)?
• Did we approach him 'in Jesus' name' - not trusting in our own righteousness?
• Was our prayer and our praying expressive of the mind/heart of God?
• Did we trust in his fatherly goodness towards us?

For some Biblical examples of unanswered prayer read the following, and note why they were unanswered:

C. PRAYER AND UNBELIEVERS

There seems to be a general uncertainty surrounding prayer and unbelievers, with four questions predominating:

C.1 Does God hear the prayers of unbelievers?

See Additional Studies in Prayer: Study 5: especially A, B and E.

C.2 Should we pray for God to intervene or interfere in the lives of unbelievers?

Yes. We should. The compassion and kindly intervention of Jesus Christ extended to 'the multitudes', not just to those who had expressed genuine faith in him. He also affirmed that God sends his rain and his sunshine on both the just and the unjust alike (Matthew 5:43-45). In addition, the following Scriptures require us to pray prayers which necessitate divine 'interference' in the lives of those who do not acknowledge him. Study these references:

C.3 Should we pray for the salvation of unbelievers?

This question is partly answered by two further questions:

Q1: Does God want unbelievers to be saved? Yes, he does.

Q2: Is the salvation of unbelievers something that is in God's hands? Yes, it is.

There are actually no commands to pray for the salvation of unbelievers (there are a few examples of prayer for the salvation of others (Isaiah 63:14-64:12; Jeremiah 14:7-9,19-22 [but see Q4 below], Acts 26:29; Romans 10:1)). However, the two facts above would indicate that such prayer is in keeping with what God has revealed of his will and purpose, and that the salvation of a person is something only God can bring about. And, as we saw in the Studies on the Lord's Prayer, the first three petitions are for God's name to be honoured, God's kingdom to come, and God's will to be done. These prayers can only be answered in individual lives when they are saved, that is, when they repent and believe. Also in keeping with God's purpose of saving the lost are the following texts where prayer is made, commanded or requested concerning the proclamation of the message of the Gospel:

As we read through the New Testament we find, instead of a focus on praying for the salvation of unbelievers,

1. a focus, in both prayer and purpose/commitment, on the proclamation of the Gospel. Without the proclamation of the Word there can be no true knowledge of God and therefore no salvation (John 8:32; Romans 10:9ff; Acts 26:17-18). This, therefore, is where the focus of prayer is.
2. much thanksgiving and prayer for people once they have believed.

If we are to pray parallel with the emphasis in Scripture, our prayers will be focused more on asking God to give boldness and clarity of expression to those who proclaim his Word, than on prayer for the salvation of individuals, but not excluding the salvation of individuals.

Q4: Is it ever wrong to pray for the salvation of unbelievers?

In the Old Testament we find the following texts which indicate that there are times when prayers for the salvation of unbelievers will not be 'heard' - because of their persistent refusal to respond to and obey the word of God. It is obvious that there came a time when God's judgement had to fall.