This is the next in our blog series “I Want Answers Now” where we explore the four ways God gives answers to our prayers.
- Yes, but not now
- Yes, but there is a need for obedience
- Yes, but here is a better option
- No
The Bible teaches that God desires for us to ask for specific things that we desire and be persistent in our asking.
Matthew 7:7-8 7 in the Amplified version says “Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.” Our persistence demonstrates our faith and it pleases God but there’s a balance to our persistent asking and it’s called the sovereignty of God. John Piper describes God’s sovereignty when he wrote “There are no limits to God’s rule. This is part of what it means to be God. He is sovereign over the whole world, and everything that happens in it. He is never helpless, never frustrated, never at a loss.” God is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful) and omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time). So it makes sense to allow God to be God, and trust Him to give us something that is even better than what we have on our current prayer list.
A great example of God giving His kids something even better than they asked for is found early in the reign of King Solomon when the Lord visits Solomon in a dream with a promise to give him anything his heart desires.
The creator of the universe can literally deliver on any request so this is quite literally a dream offer. Solomon asked for wisdom to rule God’s people as king of Israel. God gave Solomon great wisdom and so much more, as 2 Chronicles 1:11 says; “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked for long life, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may govern my people over whom I have made you king.” “Therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you … such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have” (2 Chron. 1:12). God was saying to Solomon’s prayer, “ Great choice, but here is an even better option.”
We may be tempted to think that prayer doesn’t matter because of the sovereignty of God.
We may think “If God is sovereign and He will do whatever he pleases, why bother to pray? Why bother have faith?” Yet God’s sovereignty doesn’t diminish our prayers or our faith, it enhances them. We ask God in faith knowing that He always wants to do even more than we are asking. Ephesians 3:20 NIV says “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” it would be incorrect to think that prayer doesn’t matter because God has clearly commanded us (not asked us) to prayer throughout the Bible. We can join with prolific writer and former atheist C.S. Lewis when he humorously quipped “I [finally] gave in and admitted that God was God.
There are at least three reasons for the Biblical command to pray: intimacy, perspective, and instruction.
The “Sovereignty negates prayer” objection misses the very important personal interaction that God desires with us through prayer. God wants to hear our heart and He wants to share his heart with us so we can understand his perspective. Prayer that doesn’t change us isn’t genuine prayer. it’s often amounts to just worrying before God. God has so much better for us. Genuine prayer touches heaven, helps us to see things differently and therefore pray and act differently in the future.
Prayer also teaches us to work together with God to see His will accomplished in the earth. The Bible teaches that one day the saints will rule the world and I believe prayer and our work to build up the church helps prepare us for our day to rule with Christ. When Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray (famous Lord’s prayer) in Matthew chapter 6 he says “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” Prayer is about God establishing His kingdom rule through us.
The Holy Spirit may instruct us to pray for an issue or intercede for a person and then He releases power to make it happen in the earth. We are learning how to rule like Christ more than delivering our most recent prayer list. God’s Sovereignty only enhances prayer’s ability to encourage intimacy, change our perspective and facilitate Kingdom instruction. American missionary Jim Elliot who was martyred while sharing the gospel with a remote South American tribe once said “God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with him.”
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