And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
If God is sovereign—why pray? Ever had that thought?
Recently I spoke to a pastor friend in Austin about prayer. He was going through a challenging season and made this comment; “I probably don’t petition God like I should; but I just believe he will do what he is going to do anyway.”
I can relate to the sentiment, but I wonder if I haven’t fallen prey to what Paul E. Miller in “A Praying Life” describes this way: “Because we can do life without God, prayer is nice but unnecessary.”
I believe in the sovereignty of God ferociously. So, if God is sovereign and nothing can thwart his purposes, why pray at all?
John Calvin makes this comment about the usefulness of prayer in light of God’s sovereignty: “It was not so much for God’s good, as it was for our good” (Book III, Ch. 20).
Prayer is for our good and it does something in us. It creates intimacy with God, it reinforces our dependency on him, and it leads to a heart at peace and a soul that worships.
All true! But is there more?
In the same section where Jesus says, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8), he nonetheless commands us to pray.
So we are commanded to pray. That should be reason enough, right? Yes! But I believe each of God’s commands is designed for more than just being a rule. It is for our good, it shows the character of God, and it brings glory to him. When we pray, we acknowledge both God’s grace and power; that he is gracious and kind enough to listen to our prayers—we aren’t a nuisance to him—and he is powerful enough to do something about it.
Scripture is full of examples of God specifically answering the prayers of his people:
- Exodus 2:24 records that God heard the groaning of the Israelites and God remembered his covenant with Abraham.
- 1 Samuel 1:10–20 describes God answering the prayer of Hannah for a son.
- Hezekiah asked God to rescue Israel from Sennacherib and God answered in 2 Kings 19:16.
- Jehoshaphat prayed for rescue in 2 Chronicles 20.
- The church prayed for Peter’s release from prison in Acts 12:5.
An analogy that has been helpful to me is John Piper likening prayer to preaching. God has ordained the preaching of the gospel as the tool he uses to save sinners. He determined that those whom he will save should be saved through the preaching of his Word (Rom. 10:14–17). So according to Dr. Piper, prayer is (among other things) God’s ordained way which we ask of him and he fulfills his purposes. In his sovereignty, he ordained both the prayer and the fulfillment.
I wonder, are there times when God waits to act until there is prayer? The passage from Luke’s gospel seems to indicate that God specifically responds to the pleas of his people. He is the God who hears and responds. If an ungodly, unjust human responds to the pleas of a helpless widow, how much more will the merciful and just judge of all the earth respond to the pleas of his children?
As a Father, I love it when my kids ask me for something and I can say yes. It brings me great joy to give good gifts to them, solve problems, allay fears, soothe hurts, and make them smile. In a small way this is a picture of God. God loves us and always does good to us, according to his sovereign plan. He acts on our behalf and loves when we pray, believing he will act according to his goodness.
