Why Pray If God Is Sovereign?

Today's question is a thoughtful one.

It's one that I went back and forth over myself a number of years ago.

And I think for a lot of Christians who are trying to be thoughtful about their walk with God This is a question for them.

So let's get into it.

Thanks very much for watching this video.

My name is Nate Sala.

I'm the president of wise disciple, which is a Christian nonprofit organization dedicated to living effectively as

Christ followers in today's culture.

I'm also a pastor in my local church here in Las Vegas.

So every now and then I get questions about theology apologetics and engaging the culture for Christ and

I invite those questions.

All right.

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Well, let me just say right off the bat that I understand where this question is coming from.

Because if you look at these two theological pieces, you know on the one hand sovereignty, right?

God's sovereignty and on the other hand prayer and you understand a little bit about what they both mean.

Well, then it seems like there's a problem.

Okay, take God's sovereignty.

For example, what God's sovereignty means is that he is in control of every single facet of existence.

Nothing happens without his either direct action or indirect allowance.

Acts chapter 17 verse 25 reveals some of this when it says.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined

allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place and Again in Isaiah 45 7 God says about

himself.

I form light and create darkness.

I make well -being and create calamity.

I am the Lord who does all these things but if we really let that sink in and we take it seriously then we can't

say that God is taken by surprise or That he is frustrated because something he tried to accomplish

failed if those things actually happened.

Then he wouldn't be God and to suggest that about God is to believe that he is not sovereign now there are some folks in the church who

believe that God does not know the future and therefore he can be.

Surprised these people are called open theists.

But that's a separate issue for another episode because I don't believe open theism is biblical.

So God is in control because he is sovereign and there's two ways to think of it along these lines.

Number one God is omniscient.

So he knows all things including the future.

He knows what will take place five minutes five days 500 years from now.

He knows all of that.

It's part of his divine attributes.

But God is also omnipotent, which means he is powerful enough to accomplish all things.

Now some of my more logically minded friends out there are probably raising an eyebrow and thinking to themselves.

You mean all things that are logically possible.

Nate?

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

It is not possible for God to create a married bachelor because that's incoherent.

It's like trying to say the people who love Jungle Cruise have good taste in movies.

Too soon so then having established God's sovereignty and taking it for granted because the scripture teaches it the obvious

question then is Why ask God for anything?

He's already predetermined everything in advance far before I was born far before the world was formed.

He already knew all these things.

He already ordained them.

And again, I understand where this question is coming from, you know that that the question makes sense to me.

But here are a couple of things to consider.

Because I think a couple of pieces need to intersect in order to get at the answer to this particular question.

Number one.

God is personally concerned about his people.

Now this right here should completely give us pause.

Because we're not talking about the president of an organization that we admire.

Or a celebrity that makes all the movies that we like.

We're talking about the creator of the entire universe and everything in it a being that can bring into existence.

Things that were not simply by speaking it he can tell mountains to move.

He can turn water aside.

He is the most powerful and infinitely worthy being ever and he is personally

concerned about his people.

Imagine I mean this will be you know different for a guy than for a girl, but imagine the most beautiful woman

You've ever seen.

Imagine the most beautiful man or woman you can possibly imagine and add to that.

They are the most popular celebrity for whatever reason in the whole world and they walk into a room

crowded with people just jam -packed full of people and they walk right by everyone and

they come and sit down next to you and they look you directly in the eyes and just start talking

to you and calling you by name and In wanting to genuinely spend time with you.

How would that make you feel?

It'd be a tremendous honor.

You know, I remember the first time I met a celebrity.

It was Chris Cornell from Soundgarden.

I was working at the Hard Rock Hotel and I got to spend time with him and check him into the hotel late night.

And we were chatting and getting to know each other.

It was an amazing experience for me because I grew up listening to Soundgarden when I was a teenager and now here I

am.

Face to face with the lead singer of Soundgarden.

It was an awesome feeling now just extrapolate that out to infinity because the creator of the universe

who is infinitely more worthy than Chris Cornell or The most beautiful celebrity that you can possibly imagine

that God is personally concerned about you.

He wants to hear from you.

He wants to know you and he wants you to know him.

But how does that happen through prayer?

Now, let me acknowledge that God has the power to do whatever he wants and he doesn't need people to

accomplish that.

All right.

He doesn't need anything because he is sufficient in and of himself to accomplish all things.

Okay, I just finished preaching a series well a portion of a series on Colossians and one of the big

takeaways from Colossians 1 2 if you read that very closely is That Jesus doesn't need our help.

Jesus is all sufficient to accomplish all things, but that doesn't matter because God is

still personally concerned about you.

So what I'm getting at here is to ask Why do I need to pray if God is sovereign is to have an incorrect perspective?

It treats God as if he were a vending machine because if you replace God with a vending machine Then the question makes much more

sense, doesn't it?

If the vending machine is gonna give me whatever it wants anyway, then why should I touch any of those buttons, right?

That's kind of how the question is being asked.

But see that's the thing.

God is not a vending machine.

He's a person and all of this misses the wonderful privilege and blessing that comes from Knowing that the

creator of the entire universe is personally concerned about his people and even though he doesn't need

our prayers He still wants you to pray because he wants to be personal with you.

That's a big deal.

Ladies and gentlemen, and I think it shines a spotlight on the fact that prayer is a reflection of who God is

and how he Feels about us.

That's the first thing now.

The second thing is because God is personally concerned about his people.

Well, then his actions and our actions are not Exclusive.

All right.

In other words, it's it's not a situation where God is like way over here.

You know determining all things and then if we come along and we try to ask for something then we're

intervening or maybe even Interfering in what God is determining.

That's that's not true.

God's determination what God ordains Includes our prayers our prayers are part

of what God is determining for the whole world.

And so to suggest that our prayers are not needed is to run up against God's attitudes about our

prayers.

Here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

Okay, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 says for we are God's workmanship Created in

Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in

them.

What do you think is entailed in good works?

Prayer prayer is part of the good works that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them

again to suggest that our prayers are not needed because God is Sovereignly determining all things that

ignores God's determining because along with everything else He determined that we pray.

So to kind of flesh this out a little further I want to read to you an excerpt from Christian theology by Millard Erickson.

Now this is a wonderful systematic theology book that's written very easily and also very

Knowledgeably, I know a lot of people especially when I was in school I heard this a lot of people will say that well you need Wayne Grudem's

systematics.

You know, you need that book on your bookshelf.

I disagree.

I think you need Erickson's on your shelf.

Anyway, here's what he says about God's sovereignty and prayer when Jesus walked on the water in Matthew 14 Peter

asked to be bidden to go to Jesus on the water and was enabled to do so.

Presumably Jesus could have enabled all the disciples to walk on the water that day.

But only Peter did because only he asked.

The centurion bringing his request for the healing of a servant in Matthew chapter 8 and the woman with the hemorrhage in Matthew chapter 9

Clinging to Jesus garment are examples of faith which demonstrated in petition.

Resulted in God's working when God wills the end in these cases Healing he

also wills the means.

Which includes a request to be healed which in turn presupposes faith.

Thus prayer does not change what he has purposed to do.

It is the means by which he accomplishes his end.

It is vital then that a prayer be uttered for without it the desired result will not come to pass.

This leads me to the last point and it really came through in that quote that I just read.

Okay, but here it is.

If you don't pray you won't receive again.

It's not that God is Determining everything and that he wants and so therefore his determining is exclusive from

our praying.

No.

Instead God is partnering with us like Millard Erickson said where our prayers are an important part of the

equation.

Why.

Because if we don't pray God will not answer, you know, maybe he purposes things to happen.

Anyway, whether we pray or not, but friends, I think a lot of us are missing out on opportunities because we

simply will not ask.

All right, I think this is why James 4 2 says you do not have because you do not ask.

Dr. Craig Hazen who is a professor at Biola?

We had him on the audio podcast a couple years ago still one of my all -time favorite interviews on

Mormonism.

You should definitely go back into the archives and check it out.

You can find all that stuff on all your podcast apps there.

But dr. Hazen wrote a book called fearless prayer recently and in it.

He says that there is a stigma Surrounding asking God for things in prayer, especially asking God for

things that are not what he calls mission critical.

But he goes on to say that we should ask anyway because God enjoys blessing us with good gifts in the same way a

father enjoys giving special gifts to his children and also because prayer is Accompanied by other

spiritual disciplines that all lead to sanctification and maturity in the spirit.

Think about it prayer is usually accompanied with what Bible study and reflection

Thanksgiving worship confession of sin perhaps fasting all of these things are

disciplines that not only Enhance the Christians walk with God.

It also enhances prayer itself.

It's all interconnected.

So all of these pieces intersect in a way that give us I think a different perspective on prayer in light of

God's sovereignty.

All right, and I think it should encourage us not because we should expect God to give us everything we ask for.

But because in spite of the fact that God has no needs He still desires us

to pray with him, which is a vital component of his determinations in the world around us.

What are your thoughts about prayer?

Do you agree with me?

Do you disagree?

Let me know in the comments below I'd love to keep the conversation going in the meantime.

Thank you so much for the question.

I was glad to answer it stay tuned for more videos including a brand new debate teacher reacts coming very

soon I'm excited about that in the meantime.

I will take a break and say bye for now.