DOES THE BIBLE REALLY SAY...

GOD WILL NOT ACT UNLESS I PRAY?

No. The Bible does not say this.

Some Christians take it even further, claiming that God cannot act unless I pray. This extreme belief fails to consider the sovereign power and authority of God, shrinking God to an impotent being dependant on my prayers. But:

The Bible says ‘Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.’ (Psalm 115:3).

He who created all that exists before I existed is not limited by whether or not I pray. He who formed me in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139) before ever I drew my first breath is not dependent on my prayers. He is the all-powerful one, the Lord Almighty.

We are not even allowed to question his actions (Romans 9:20,21), let alone think that he cannot act unless we release him through our prayers.

But, does the Bible say that God will not act unless I pray?

No. The Bible does not teach this either. He has not put responsibility for the future of the planet, nor for our future, in our prayers. He has given us responsibilities, true, but it is not this responsibility, that I by my lack of prayer limit his actions, or by my praying determine his actions, that I by my praying steer him as a helmsman steers a ship. We have only to read Isaiah 40 to 46, or Job 38 to 41 to see how ludicrous such an idea is. He is the Almighty, Sovereign Lord. All powerful. Unlimited.

Did any of us ask him to create the universe? No. Or to create it in the form in which it is, with its incredible diversity in every aspect and dimension? No. Yet he did it, in such power and beauty and majesty and intricacy that we could never have imagined.

His sun shines on those who do not pray. His rain falls on those who do not pray (Matthew 5:45). Even on those who pray to his enemy. He continues to hold the universe, and all that is in it, together, sustaining all things by his powerful word (Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3), without our asking him to do it. The very ground we walk on, the buildings we build, the glass that holds our drink of water, and the water itself, would disintegrate and become nothing if he withdrew his sustaining word. Yet we do not think to ask him to sustain intact the material substances of a chair before we sit on it. We do not ask him to hold the metals in our cars together before we drive them. We do not ask him to hold the earth in its orbit as we wake each morning. God is constantly acting without our praying. He is constantly doing things that we constantly take for granted, not even thanking him for them, not even acknowledging his sustaining power.

Did any of us ask him to send his Son to die for us? No. Yet that was his plan from before the foundation of the earth (1Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8), a plan he unfolded and anticipated in intricate detail through the worship and history of Israel, bringing it finally to pass in the historical birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. He prepared our salvation for us before we were born. Before we knew anything about it. Before we asked him for it (Matthew 25:34; 2Timothy 1:9). He acted thus on our behalf apart from our prayers.

Having said all of that, it is necessary to say this also: that God sometimes chooses not to act on our behalf in a specific matter until we pray.

In our sinfulness we have an in-built bias to self-sufficiency and independence which blinds us to our constant dependence upon God. Prayer reminds us of the true state of affairs. By it we acknowledge that all that we have and are, and all that we ever hope to have and be, is ours solely from God.

When we live without prayer for any extended length of time our awareness of his sustaining and providential care dims, our perception of his loving presence with us fades. In this state we begin to live as though he were not there. I do not mean by this that we revert to an overtly sinful lifestyle, but that we live as though we were on our own, dependent on our own ability and survival mechanisms. In this state of perceived aloneness we become either proud and self-satisfied with what we believe we have achieved by ourselves, or fearful and insecure because of our all to obvious inability to keep ourselves secure. Both are dishonouring to God, and both undercut our enjoyment of God and his salvation.