Prayer Causes Things to Happen — John Piper

Prayer as God-Ordained Causality

And it's simply staggering that God would ordain, now get this, that God, the sovereign ruler of the universe, would ordain that prayers cause things. They do. Prayer. Prayers cause things to happen that would not happen if you didn't pray.

James 4:2 and the Necessity of Asking

I wonder if any Calvinists out there squirming. Listen to this. When James 4 2 says, you do not have because you do not ask, that does not mean you would have anyway even if you didn't ask, because I got a plan.

Prayer as a Privilege Within God's Sovereignty

The verse doesn't mean the opposite of what it says. It says you have not because you ask not. That means prayer causes things to happen that wouldn't happen if you didn't pray. This is why this is a staggeringly glorious privilege to be taken by the sovereign God of the universe who runs all things according to his infinite wisdom and fold it in to his causality.

The Folly of Neglecting Prayer

This is breathtaking. If you do not avail yourself of the privilege of bringing to pass events in the universe that would not take place if you didn't pray, you are acting like a colossal fool, aren't you?

Believers’ Participation in God's Purposes

I'm just thinking logically here. If you are offered the privilege of engaging with God in such a way that your requests could bring into being things that would not otherwise come into being, not to avail yourself of that privilege is folly of the highest or lowest order.

That's why we pray. God is beckoning us into our share in the running of the universe. Do you not know that you will judge angels? Do you know who you are, child of God?