Catching Idle Butterflies

God�s will be done

What’s the point of praying if we can’t change God’s mind anyway? After all, he knows the future, and he already knows what’s best for us. Why, then, waste our time and his time asking for what we need?

And yet, the Bible stresses the importance of prayer above everything short of loving and worshiping him. Why if it wasn’t so important? Yes, prayer is our way of communicating with God, and he loves when we talk to him, but there’s more involved that simply holding conversations.

I’ve complained about how I don’t know how to pray effectively, and judging by comments I’ve received, others have the same difficulty. One asked the first question above, and since I often ask the same thing, I couldn’t let the question go. I needed to find an answer.

I looked to the Bible.

In Exodus 32:7-14, God told Moses he would destroy Israel for worshiping the golden calf, and would start over with Moses descendants. Moses eventually talked him out of it.

Abraham also changed God’s mind in Genesis 18:16-33. God again was about to destroy Sodom, but Abraham told him to stay his wrath until Lot, the only righteous man in the city, could escape.

Mark 9:14-29 relays how the disciples were unable to cast out a demon. Jesus told them in verse 29: “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”

My study Bible notes (New Living Translation) for verse 29 say this: The disciples would often face difficult situations that could be resolved only through prayer. Prayer is the key that unlocks faith in our life. Effective prayer needs both the attitude of complete dependence and the action of asking. Prayer demonstrates our reliance on God as we humbly invite him to fill us with faith and power. There is no substitute for prayer, especially in circumstances that seem impossible.

I think part of the reason our prayers seem ineffective could be a lack of faith, and assuming we don’t have the power to effect God’s decisions.

One of my favorite scriptures about prayer is Matthew 7:7-11: “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

“You parents – if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”

Does that mean there won’t be times God will say no? Not at all, but in assuming the answers will always be no is the same as, if not worse than, assuming he will always say yes.

It’s important to pray for God’s will to be done. He knows what’s better for us than we do, but I also think we have the power to effect his will. It’s like the entry I wrote in a separate book ("Invalid Item" ) about predestination verses free will: "Invalid Entry" . God may know the future, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s taken complete control of it. If he did, then my decision to follow him and love him isn’t genuine, because, well, he made me do it.

What if prayer works the same way? What if he hasn’t made up his mind in a particular circumstance? What if he’s waiting for us to ask him to change our feared outcome?

To assume that he’s made up his mind in all circumstances makes him appear hard and intractable, not the adoring father he is. After all, the Bible places importance on us acting in partnership with God in this world, I think the same goes with being his partner in releasing the power of prayer.

I don’t know if all that satisfies the original question, but the scriptures above at least give me a measure of comfort that God is not only listening, but he finds as much joy in giving as much as we do. All we have to do is ask, and believe he will answer.