← Ask Pastor John
Ask Pastor John
God’s Plan for Your Prayers
00:11:52
If God is sovereign, why should we pray? Pastor John encourages us to seek God with confidence in his power and plan for our lives.
Loading summary
Transcript3 lines
- [00:04]
A
Well, a week ago we looked at how to break free from prayer ruts. You know, getting free from what happens so often when we just get stuck in a loop of praying for the same daily needs and same stresses over and over and over again every day. Today we look at your prayers purposes in God's plan. Your prayers purposes in God's plan. Because it's a question that stops a lot of people right in their tracks. If God is truly in control of everything, and he definitely is, and if he already knows everything about what is going to happen according to his decree, and he does, then why should we ever bother asking him for things? Doesn't an all knowing, all sovereign God render all of our prayers pointless? Today on Ask Pastor John, God's plan for your prayers. The question is from an anonymous listener to the podcast Pastor John, I have a question which, as I read it out, may seem really basic to you, but it's a very new insight for me. In 1st Chronicles 29, verses 10 to 20, which is coming up soon in our Bible reading, David offers a hugely important and powerful prayer that acknowledges God's absolute sovereignty over all things. He says, yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. That's verse 11, very powerful. He just states this fact. David doesn't focus on his own achievements or on Israel's wealth. Instead, he humbly recognizes that everything they give has first come from God's hand. For all things come from you and of your own. Have we given you. Verse 14, his words overflow with reverence, gratitude, and dependence on God. So how important is God's sovereignty in shaping the content of all of our prayers?
- [01:39]
B
In Ezekiel 36, 37, God says to the people of Israel, thus says the Lord God. This also I will be sought by the house of Israel to do for them, to increase their people like a flock. So the way cities will be filled with flocks of people, then they will know that I am the Lord. Now, earlier in the chapter, verse 10, God had promised he would do that he would multiply the people. He would fill the cities with his flocks, his people. But now in verse 37, he tells them how he's going to do it, how he's going to do it, namely, I will be sought to do it. Now that's my literal translation of the Nifiel form of the Hebrew verb darash, to seek. I think it says in ese, I will let my people seek Me or something like that, which is fine. But he's. He's telling them, here's how I'm going to do it. I will be sought by you to do it. That means I will be prayed to. This also I will be sought, I will be prayed to by the house of Israel to do for them. That is one of the instances in the Bible, one of the clearest, I think, of how God's purpose to do a thing and his way of doing it are brought together. Namely, he purposes to do a thing and then he aims to do it through our prayers. I plan to do it, and so I will be sought by them to do it. I'm going to ordain the thing. I'm going to ordain the prayer that will cause me to do what I have ordained to do. That's the fundamental relationship between the sovereignty of God and, and human prayer. God plans something and then he ordains what the means will be he'll use to bring it about. And one of those means is prayer. And you can see it again in Matthew 6, 7, 8. 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. I think that means at least, at least in part, that our Father in heaven knows what's good for us and has a plan to do it through our asking, so that our asking does not need to be eloquent or long winded, as if we need to twist his arm to do what he, as a good Father, aims to do for us. But let's not make the mistake of drawing the false conclusion. People think it's a logical conclusion. No, it's not a logical conclusion. It's false logic. Namely, that God, because He's sovereign and things are going to happen the way he intended because they're going to do that. You don't need to pray. It's pointless to pray. That's false, ungodly, unbiblical logic. That's not the way it works. It's not always the case because God often plans that the human means are not decreed and so neither is the result decreed. As soon as you realize that outcomes and means to those outcomes are both in the mind of God, then you will fall prey to that false logic of saying, well, since God is sovereign, it doesn't matter whether we pray or not. In fact, James chapter four makes sure that we don't make that mistake. He's saying if the Lord later on. I mean, in verse 15, he says, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. So he's clearly a total believer in the sovereignty of God. Meticulous sovereignty. If the Lord wills, we will live and and do this or that. That's sovereignty and providence. But in verse two, he says this. You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You do not have because you do not ask. Wow. Could the value of prayer be elevated any more highly than for an inspired biblical spokesman? Say, the reason you don't have is because you didn't ask. Things don't happen because we don't ask for them to happen. That's true. That does not mean that everything you ask happens. We're not God. He's a good father. Fathers, good fathers don't do that. They don't give everything to their children that they ask for. He gives good things. If we ask for bread, he doesn't give us a stone. If we ask for fish, he doesn't give us a snake. What does he give? Jesus says he gives good things. Good things to those who ask, like every good father does, only much more. If a child asks for something harmful, a good father gives him something beneficial. I think there are two basic things that we can say in answer to this question that the sovereignty of God does to our prayers. Number one, it provides a tone and conviction of submissiveness and reverence and worship. And two, it provides a deep confidence that nothing is too hard for the Lord, so nothing can stop him from answering our prayers when he sets himself to do it. You can see the first effect of sovereignty in the prayer of the church in Acts 4, 24, 33. It starts like this, sovereign Lord, who made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them. And then it goes on, quotes Psalm 2, about the futility of the nations raging against the sovereign God. And then it goes on to testify to God's predestining Pilate and Herod and the Jews and the Gentiles in the killing of Jesus. It's just an amazing prayer. Only after all of that acclamation of God's sovereign rule over the world does the prayer finally, in verse 29, get to a request. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness. That's an amazing way to pray. And it's all shaped by the sovereignty of God. More than Half of the prayer is simply exalting before God in the absolute rule of God over his enemies. So that's the first effect of the sovereignty of God on prayer. It gives a tone of submissive reverence and worship and exaltation in God. The other effect of the sovereignty of God on prayer is to give us a strong confidence that nothing is too hard for the Lord. Job says in job 42 2, I know that you can do all things, Lord, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted. And when the disciples were dismayed that Jesus said, the rich can't get into heaven, or at least it's hard for the rich to get into the kingdom of heaven, they were just blown away. And they said, well, then, who can be saved? And Jesus responded, with man, this is impossible, namely to save people. But with God, all things are possible. That's our confidence in prayer for people who look impossible to save. In fact, Paul said that the hardness of the Jews in his day was owing to God's sovereign decree, but he prayed for them anyway. Romans 10:1. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. So I would encourage all of us to pray without ceasing for the things that seem to be impossible because they're not impossible for God, because God is sovereign. The sovereignty of God is the great ground of our hope for answered prayer.
- [10:38]
A
Yeah. As soon as you realize that the outcomes and the means to those outcomes are both in the mind of God, then you won't fall prey to that false logic that assumes since God is sovereign, it doesn't matter whether we pray or not. No. He purposes to do a thing, and then he aims to do it through our prayers. Such a great word, Pastor John. Thank you. God's absolute sovereignty doesn't cancel out our prayers or our deeds or any of the means that God intends to use to bring about his sovereign ends. He means to use the means of my prayers. Your prayers. He's going to use them. He intends to use them. He planned to use them. Such a beautiful plan that brings dignity to all of our spiritual lives. Everything that we do in our spiritual lives is given new value by what you shared with us today. Pastor John, thank you and thanks for joining us today. If you have a question to ask Pastor John, find a link to email us and find our complete episode archive at the same place askpasterjohn.com 2,270 APJ episodes now, all archived and fully transcribed for you to search and browse and find your way through. I am Tony Reinke, Pastor John, and I will see you back here on Monday. Thanks for listening.