By Faith Enterprises

If God Foreordained - Before the Foundation of the World - Everything in Time, What Use is Prayer?

Tip! So it is the same elsewhere in the Holy Bible (James 1:5) we have “asking” put into view as a prayer: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, and upbraiding [scolding somebody] not, and it shall be given him.

I would like to offer a few remarks concerning the design of prayer. Why is it that God has chosen that we should pray at all? The vast majority of people including me would reply, in order that we may acquire from God the things that we need for life on this world. While this is one of the purposes of prayer it is by no means the most important one. Moreover, this idea of prayer only considers it from our human side, and prayer must be viewed from the Divine side. So with that in mind, then, let us look at some of the reasons why God has required us to pray.

First and foremost, prayer has been appointed so that the Lord God Himself should be honored. God requires we should recognize that He is, indeed, "the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity" (Isaiah 57:15). God requires that we must own His universal dominion: in petitioning God for rain Elijah did but confess His control over the elements; as well when we are in prayer to God to deliver a poor sinner from the wrath to come we acknowledge that "salvation is of the LORD" (Jonah 2:9); in supplicating His blessing on the Gospel unto the uttermost parts of the earth we are declaring His ruler-ship over the whole world.

Tip! THE word “Prayer” expresses the largest and most comprehensive way to approach God.

Again; God requires that we worship Him, and prayer, that is real prayer, is an act of worship. Prayer is an act of worship inasmuch as it is the prostrating of our soul before Him; inasmuch as it is us calling on His great and holy name; inasmuch as it is our acknowledgement of His goodness, His power, His immutability, His grace, and inasmuch as it is the recognition of His Sovereignty, owned by our submission to His will. It is very noteworthy to see in this connection that the Temple or Church wasn't termed by Christ as the House of Sacrifice, but instead, the House of Prayer.

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Once more; prayer redounds to God's glory, for it is in prayer that we do acknowledge our dependency on Him completely. For it is only when we humbly supplicate the Divine Being that we throw ourselves on His power and mercy. In seeking blessings from God we admit that He is the Author and Fountain of every good and perfect gift. That prayer brings glory to God is more often seen by the fact that prayer calls faith into exercise, and nothing from us is as honoring and pleasing to Him as the confidence we have in our hearts for Him.

Tip! “Asking of God” and “receiving” from the Lord - direct request to God, immediate connection with God - that is true prayer.

In the second place, prayer is appointed by God for our spiritual blessing, as a means for our growth in grace. Before we regard prayer as a means for obtaining the supply of our need; we should be seeking to learn the design of prayer first. Prayer is designed by God for our humbling. Prayer, real prayer that is, is a coming into the Presence of God, and a sense of His awful majesty produces a realization of our nothingness and unworthiness.

Again; prayer is designed by God for the exercise of our faith. Faith is started in the Word as Romans 10:8 says: "But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach);", but it is exercised in prayer; that is why, we read of "the prayer of faith."

Tip! “Supplication” is the very soul of prayer in the way of pleading for some one thing, very much needed, and the need intensely felt.

Another way prayer is designed by God is that prayer calls love into action. This must be asked concerning the hypocrite, "Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God?" (Job 27:10). But they that love the Lord cannot stay away from His love for very long, because they delight in confessing themselves to Him. Not only does prayer call love into action but through the direct answers granted to our prayers our love for God is increased-"I love the LORD, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications" (Psalm 116:1).

Tip! 1 Timothy 2:1. Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.

Once again; prayer is designed by God to teach us the value of the blessings we have sought from Him, and it causes us to rejoice even more when He has granted us that which we asked or supplicated of Him.

Third, prayer is appointed by God for our seeking from Him the things which we are in need of. If God has foreordained, before the foundation of the world, everything which happens in time, what is the use of prayer? If it is true that "of Him and through Him and to Him are all things" (Romans 11:30), then why is there a need for us to pray? When replying directly to these questions it should be pointed out how that there is just as much reason to ask, what is the use of me coming to God and telling Him what He already knows? Wherein is the use of me spreading before Him my need, seeing He is already acquainted with it? What is the use of praying for anything when everything has been ordained beforehand by God?

Tip! Our ability to work for God, and to pray to God, and live for God, and affect others for God, will be dependent on the measure of the Holy Spirit received by us, dwelling in us, and working through us.

Prayer is not for the purpose of informing God, as if He were ignorant (the Saviour expressly declared "for your Father knows what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him"-Matt. 6:8), but it is to acknowledge that He does know what we are in need of. Prayer is not appointed for us to provide God with the knowledge of what we need, but is designed as a confession to Him of our sense of need. In this, as in everything, God's thoughts are not as ours. God requires that His gifts should be sought for by us. He designs to be honored by our asking, just as He is to be thanked by us after He has given us His blessing.

However, the question still returns with us, If God is the Predestinator of everything that comes to pass, and the Regulator of all events, then isn't prayer a profitless exercise? A best answer to these questions is that God bids us to pray, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). And again, "men ought always to pray" (Luke 18:1). And further: Scripture declares that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick," and "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:15, 16); while the Lord Jesus Christ, our perfect Example in all things, with superiority a Man of Prayer. So, it is evident, that prayer is neither meaningless nor valueless. But still this does not remove the difficulty or answer the question with which we started out. What then is the relationship between God's Sovereignty and Christian prayer? In my next post I hope to answer this question completely.

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