If God Is Sovereign, What’s the Point of Prayer?

Continuing our little series of responses to comments on my Six Points of Calvinism articles, I want to tackle a topic that I’m sure many people who have encountered Reformed Theology (and perhaps some of those who embrace Reformed Theology) have asked: If God is exhaustively sovereign and has decreed all that will come to pass, why pray? It’s not an unreasonable question. After all, if you believe that God has ordained all that will come to pass, why should we approach Him in prayer? Whatever we ask for will happen anyway, so what’s the point?

A related question that I will also address concerns evangelism: If God already knows who He is going to save, why would anyone share their faith? What’s the point of missionary work? Shouldn’t we all just go to church and attend to our own lives and let God save whomsoever He wills? Seems fair, especially if you’re not comfortable talking to people you don’t know, or you’re a bit socially awkward. Why should you get out of your comfort zone when God has already decided each person’s fate?

What Is Prayer?

Before we answer the question, let’s take a moment to consider what we mean by “prayer.” I guess for many, prayer is supplication. You get on your knees and you ask, beg, or plead that a certain thing will or will not happen, or that you or someone else might receive or not receive something. This is not a wrong answer. Supplication is an important part of prayer, as exemplified in countless biblical passages such as:

And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived (Genesis 25:21).

And I prayed to the LORD, ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand’ (Deuteronomy 9:26).

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly (Isaiah 38:2-3).

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-15).

Even the example prayer Jesus gave us contains the following supplications:

• Give us this day our daily bread
• Forgive us our debts
• Lead us not into temptation
• Deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:11-13; cp. Luke 11:3-4)

However, this is not a sufficient definition of prayer. There’s more to prayer than supplication. Prayer can be simply speaking to the Lord from our hearts, telling Him of the things that make us rejoice and that make us sad. Thanksgiving and praise should certainly be a part of our prayer lives, expressing our gratitude to God for all He has given us and done for us, for prayers He’s answered, and for who He is, His attributes, His character, and the wonder of His creation. All of these you can find in Scripture, too.

While we can all acknowledge that “prayer” has numerous aspects, supplication is the focus of this question. This aspect of prayer also serves to bring out the apparent contradiction between a belief in God’s decree and absolute sovereignty, and the biblical command to present our petitions to God and not to be afraid to ask Him for what we need (e.g., Matthew 7:7-11).

An Illustration

Does a Reformed view of God and His decree make prayers of supplication a waste of time? When we ask this question, we’re not really asking “Should Reformed people (or anyone) make prayers of supplication?”–we’ve established that’s a given because we’re commanded to by Scripture. Really we’re asking, “What are our expectations when we request things from God?” Are we asking God to change His mind and not do the thing He was planning to do? Or are we asking God to stop doing something He was doing? In other words, is our intention to intervene and subvert God’s plans? Or are we saying God’s plans are not eternal and fixed, but flexible and subject to strong petitioning from finite humans?

Here’s an illustration to help highlight what I think is a fundamental flaw with a non-Reformed view of prayer. Let’s say you petition God for success in an upcoming job interview. Why are you praying for that? Because you believe that God is able to grant you success. He can make you look favorable in the eyes of the interviewer. The Lord can give the interviewer questions to ask that are the questions you answer best. In other words, God being God has the power to manipulate circumstances to your favor so you get the job.

But what if your neighbor is praying the exact same prayer for the exact same job? What if there are 50 applicants for that job, and they are all good Christians who are praying for success with the same job interview? Who wins? The person who prays most fervently? Maybe one of them fasted–would that give him the edge with God? What if one of them had her entire 1,000-member church praying for her, as well as all the people on her prayer chain? Would she win God’s favor by sheer majority vote?

Think again about why you’re praying to God about this: you believe that God is able to orchestrate the interview and all the attendant circumstances in your favor. What if the interviewer was not impressed with your interview despite all of God’s best efforts to make you look good? Are you asking God to manipulate the interviewer’s will so he changes his mind about you? What other aspects of man’s free will are you willing to allow God to violate in order to answer your prayer? Or are you saying that God’s will in the matter is irrelevant; the interviewer’s free will takes precedence?

Let’s take a broader view. Life doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Actions have consequences, many of which we don’t become aware of until long after the event if we become aware of them at all. The question is: Does God have a plan for the universe? Is God at work to do anything? Or is He just letting us run the show, and only intervening if we ask? You might say, “Okay, God may have a broad plan for the universe, but not for each of us individually–at least, He gives us some wiggle room to make choices He might not make for us.” What if we make a choice that affects His plan for the universe? Suppose you not getting that job leads by various paths to a great revival through which many millions of people come to know Jesus. If God answered your prayer and gave you the job, either His broad plan will fail, or He would have to start over with a Plan B that might also fail because of someone else’s prayer.

The fact of the matter is, if you believe God is in control of anything, you can’t avoid the conclusion that He must be in control of everything.

What Doe the Bible Say?

What is the view of God presented to us in Scripture? Is it someone with vague, changeable plans, always responding to what we do? Or is He the sovereign Lord of all creation who is in control of all things and invites us to be a part of His work?

Here’s a sampling of the biblical testimony as it pertains to this subject:

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Matthew 6:7–8).

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:22–23).

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him (Ephesians 3:7–12).

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand (Proverbs 19:21).

So Why Pray or Evangelize?

The most important answer to this question is: Because we are commanded to (e.g., Matthew 6:5,7; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). The same goes for evangelism. Why preach to the lost and plead with people to come to Christ? Because the Lord commands it (Matthew 28:19-20). If we are Christians who call Christ Lord, that should be sufficient. As we study what Scripture says about the character of God and how He interacts with His people, we might discern some reasons why He wants us to pray:

• God wants His people to be actively involved in His work. He doesn’t need us for anything. God could turn hearts to Christ without us preaching the gospel. The Lord can heal, give wisdom, provide work, or even change the weather without our help. And sometimes He does! But often He will use us as His means to accomplish His work. For example, He uses doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals to answer prayers for healing, the police and military to answer prayers for protection, and pastors and teachers to answer prayers for wisdom and enlightenment. In each of these cases, the prayer itself is part of the process God uses to bring about the answer. This makes us more acutely aware of God’s hand at work in our lives and the lives of those for whom we pray. We might also rejoice a little more fervently at the answers we see to prayers we prayed.
• God likes to commune with His people, and prayer is a way we can spend time in His presence, giving Him praise and worship.
• Through prayer, we acknowledge our dependence upon God and submit to His will.
• As we pray for people, our love and compassion for those people increase. In other words, prayer affects us more than it affects God.

I think this serves to underscore what I believe to be the key principle of Reformed thinking. In fact, I would go so far as to say this is a foundational principle of biblical thinking: It’s not about us; it’s all about God. While we may pray for things that are of interest to us, our prayers shouldn’t be about us. Rather, we should be seeking that which most glorifies God, even if it means we don’t get what we want. The very act of prayer, coming before the Lord, humbling ourselves, laying our burdens at His feet, and giving Him praise and adoration, is an end in itself.

Many books have been written on the subject of prayer so I know I’m only skimming the surface of this very deep and important topic. I hope, however, this has helped answer the question. At least I hope it has given some food for thought and prayerful meditation.