Providence and Prayer

IF GOD IN HIS PROVIDENCE ORDAINS ALL THAT COMES TO pass, why should the Christian pray? On the surface the doctrine of providence may suggest that prayer is an exercise in futility. Beside the clear and obvious reality that we are frequently commanded to pray there stands many reasons for us to be ardently involved in the exercise of prayer.

We remember that God has an eternal plan of redemption, a plan that is formed down to the smallest details. God has a purpose, end, and goal to that plan of redemption. All things are not only working together for our good, but they are also working together for the accomplishment of God's eternal purpose. His providence not only extends to the ends but also to the means to those ends.

A means is a vehicle through which something is accomplished. So, simply stated, God ordains the means to the ends as well as the ends themselves. He uses the means as secondary causes under the supervision and government of His primary causality.

In the life of the church we speak of the "means of grace." One of the chief means of grace is prayer. The means of grace are given to us as instruments for our sanctification. Prayer is a vital vehicle, or tool, that God has given His church so that we may become fully sanctified. By prayer our thoughts are lifted toward Him and our hearts are bent to His perfect will. God is not the beneficiary of our prayers. He is the Benefactor; we are the beneficiaries.

Calvin remarked in the Institutes: But some will say Does he not know without a monitor for both what our difficulties are, and what is meet for our interest, so that it seems in some measure superfluous to solicit him by our prayers, as if he were winking, or even sleeping, until aroused by the sound of our voice? Those who argue thus attend not to the end for which the Lord taught us to pray. It was not so much for his

sake as for ours. (III/XX.3) What possible benefit could our prayers have for God? He has no need of them for self-fulfillment. The praise and adoration of His creatures, though He declares it pleasing to Him, are not things He requires for His own divine fulfillment. He is altogether self-sufficient, and His own felicity can be neither augmented nor diminished by the works of His creatures. He is the everblessed God who got along without us before we were created and can get along without us now.

Can our prayers add to God's knowledge? To ask this question is to answer it.

God is omniscient. He gleans no new information from us that He did not already have. We are not His research assistants who gather information for Him because He lacks it. He knows what we need before we tell Him and knows even what it is we are about to tell Him before we speak a word in prayer. As the psalmist wrote: O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.

You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, YOU know it altogether. (Ps. 139:1-4) Nor do we function as God's guidance counselors; we are never in a position to correct God's judgments. As we have already seen, God has no need of a Plan B, a fail-back course to put into operation when the initial plan fails or is thwarted.

Prayer does not change God's mind . . . ever. Why not? Precisely because He can learn nothing new from us and because He never has a plan that is less than perfect. I change my mind on planned courses of action when I receive new information or when I discover an error in my thinking. These situations are simply not possible for God.

Though prayer never changes God's mind in the ultimate sense, it does not follow that prayer is a useless exercise that accomplishes nothing. On the contrary, the New Testament makes it clear that prayer is a powerful force and that it is a force for change: Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. (James 5:16-18) In this text James declares that the "effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." The apostle uses qualifiers here that are important. He speaks of prayer that is effective and prayer that is fervent. The two are related. Effective prayer is prayer that "works"; James says it "avails much." This promise does not apply to prayer that is cavalier or full of empty phrases or recited dispassionately. Saying that prayer is to be fervent is not a call to wild and frenzied emotionalism, which may be as empty as the vacuous prayers of those who express rote phrases. Fervency calls attention to a sincere and steadfast focus upon God; this kind of prayer is serious. It comes from the core of the soul, from the heart of the saint who means business.

James also says that effective prayer is the prayer of the righteous. Such prayers are a sweet-smelling savor to God, and the Lord is pleased to hear them. But the prayers of the ungodly are not so. Their prayers are uttered in hypocrisy and are a stench in the nostrils of God. Repeatedly God warns that He will not hear the prayers of the proud or the impenitent. It is not our sin that is the barrier to effective prayer; it is the attitude we have toward our sin that matters. God hears the prayers of sinners because, apart from the prayers of His Son, that is the only kind of people who pray. Here the righteous refer to those sinners covered by the

righteousness of Christ who approach God. They are the justified who remain simul justus et peccator, at the same time just and sinner. If God listened only to the prayers of those who are completely righteous in themselves He would not listen to our pleadings.

James points to Elijah as an example of a man "with a nature like ours." What does this mean? We may find it difficult to liken ourselves to such a titan of faith as the prophet Elijah. After all, there are so few ways in which we are like him.

But we are like him at least to this degree: Elijah was a human being. He had no divine nature. He was also a fallen human being. In a word, Elijah was a justified sinner as we are ourselves if we are in Christ.

The point is simple: God not only listens to the petitions of the prophets, but He listens to ours as well. Otherwise, there would be no point in calling us to pray while at the same time pointing to Elijah as an example.

On numerous occasions Jesus called His disciples to pray and encouraged them to be bold and diligent in that exercise. The parable of the unjust judge is a case in point: Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary/ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'" Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?" (Luke 18:1-7) Luke tells us the reason why Jesus spoke this parable. It was not to convince us that God can be persuaded to change His mind, as the unjust judge's mind was changed by the annoying pleas of the widow. It is a parable of contrast more than of comparison. Jesus gave the parable to teach that we ought always to pray and

not lose heart. The point is that if an unjust judge will listen to the persistent pleas of a woman then how much more will the Just Judge of heaven and earth listen to our petitions?

Jesus promises that God will certainly vindicate or avenge His elect who cry out to Him day and night. This is part of the promise of God because it is part of the plan of God. As we pray we are not pestering God to hear us, but we are engaged in an exercise designed to benefit our own souls. We pray so that we may not lose heart.

When we understand James's words that prayer "avails much," we can conclude that prayer really does change things. Again, what it changes is not the eternal plan of God or the perfection of His knowledge. Most importantly, prayer changes us. Why else would Jesus instruct us to pray for those things that God already knows we need? Again, it is surely not for His instruction.

We may be tempted to say that what we receive from the hand of Providence is ultimately dependent upon certain conditions we must meet to receive it. Jesus warned that we have not because we ask not. This would seem to suggest that God's blessings are contingent, ultimately dependent upon us. But it is the character of God to meet for us the very conditions He demands from us. Faith is a condition for our justification. But it is a condition we meet only after God works faith in our hearts. He ensures, not only the end of our salvation, but the means as well.

Does this mean we have no responsibility to pray? Of course not. The responsibility for secondary causes that serve as means to the divine ends is still ours. But the point is that God's eternal ends are not at the mercy of our actions or lack of them. When we are engaged in prayer, something happens to us. We are changed by the experience. Prayer is a vital part of a living relationship we have with God. It is a kind of intercourse, or conversation, between two personal beings. One of these beings is immutable and omniscient; the other is mutable and lacking in perfect knowledge. In prayer God learns nothing new about us, but we are ever learning about Him.

In his novel Honor Among Thieves, Jeffrey Archer includes a poignant episode

that involves two main characters of the story. Hannah Kopec is a beautiful young woman whose family was wiped out by missiles fired at Israel by Saddam Hussein. She enters rigorous training to become an agent of the Mossad. When she completes her training, she is sent to Paris to do espionage work in the Iraqi embassy. In the meantime an American professor of Yale University, Scott Bradley, is enlisted by the CIA to spy on Hannah. When Hannah is instructed by her superiors that she will be contacted by a Mossad agent in Paris, Bradley meets her and poses as that Mossad agent. In the ensuing days Hannah and Scott fall in love. Scott knows who Hannah is, but she does not know who Scott really is. As their relationship develops, Scott feels increasingly guilty about continuing the deception of the one he loves.

Meanwhile, Hannah is finally contacted by the real Mossad agent and discovers that Scott is an imposter. The Mossad does not know that Scott is working for their allies in the CIA and orders Hannah to kill him. Scott invites Hannah for dinner, secretly planning to confess to her that he has been living a lie and to reveal his true identity. She accepts his invitation, planning to use the occasion to obey the order to kill him.

When they meet for dinner Scott pours coffee for himself and for Hannah. Even though Hannah customarily does not use sugar in her coffee she asks Scott for some this time. When he goes to the kitchen to get the sugar bowl Hannah drops a lethal dose of poison in Scott's coffee. He returns with the sugar bowl, begins to drink his coffee, and then proceeds to confess all to Hannah. She listens in horror as she discovers she has just poisoned not only an ally but the man she loves more than anyone else in the world. In fairness to Jeffrey Archer I will not reveal here the end of the story but will use this scenario to point out that the story involves two people who know something (but not everything) about each other. Their relationship is affected by what they don't know about each other. Similarly in prayer we are in a relationship in which one party knows something about the Other Party while the Other Party knows everything about the first party.

In prayer we have the opportunity to learn of the character of the Father. Indeed, prayer is one of the most effective means we have to discern the invisible hand of Providence. The more we understand the character of God, the easier it is for

us to see His hand at work in our lives. This comes first from the selfrevelation God gives in Scripture but also mightily in the experience of prayer.

When we are praying in general we tend to see the work of Providence likewise "in general." When we pray specifically we begin to be overwhelmed by the specific answers to our prayer that vividly display His hand to us. By this our faith is strengthened, and our confidence in His Providence is intensified.

The Common Aspects of Prayer

It is customary to delineate the common aspects of prayer by the the acrostic ACTS. The A stands for adoration, the C stands for confession, the T stands for thanksgiving, and the S stands for supplication (or intercession). In each of these aspects, or elements, of prayer we are engaged in an exercise that is lifechanging.

Adoration

No believer can spend much time in the adoration of God without being changed by the experience. We were created with the capacity for worship. Indeed, if we examine the prayer lives of the great saints we notice that the time they spend in adoration in their prayers is in direct proportion to their sanctification. Consider the psalms of David; these prayers are replete with adoration. The closer David draws to God, the more intense his expressions of praise and adoration become.

What was true of David and the saints of church history will be true for us as well.

In adoration the focus of our attention is not upon ourselves or upon our own needs. Here the focus is on the glory and majesty of God. We are basking in His glory and delighting in His presence when we are engaged in authentic adoration. I think adoration is the most fulfilling dimension in prayer. Just as love letters between young lovers focus on the points of delight they find in their partners, so are lovers of God immersed in the praise of His perfections and excellency.

Confession

The cliche "confession is good for the soul" has become a cliche because it is true. In confession we loose our burden of unconfessed guilt. We do not tell God what has escaped His notice; He knows our sin, and we know that He knows it.

But the act of telling it to Him is to acknowledge it for the sake of our own peace of mind. We are changed by the confession of our sin. We are not only changed in the sense that our status before God is changed. Nor are we changed merely by the forgiveness and cleansing that follow from it; we are changed in the very act of the confessing itself.

The relationship between adoration in prayer and confession is obvious. The more we contemplate the excellency of God in His perfect holiness the more cognizant we become of our own unworthiness. The more we learn of God the more we learn about ourselves. The more we learn about ourselves the more we realize we have to confess.

*

Thanksgiving

Just as God does not need our adoration to feel good about Himself or our confession to be aware of our sins, so He does not need the expression of our thanks to feel appreciated. We human beings are different: I do appreciate it when people thank me for things, and I know others feel the same sort of appreciation when I offer them my thanks. We need this kind of interchange among people, but God does not need it; nor is He in any way changed by it.

Again, it is we who are changed by thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving and joy are not the same thing. They may be distinguished from one another, but they may not be separated. Joy evokes thanksgiving, and thanksgiving evokes joy. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two.

When we contemplate the mercies we receive from the hand of Providence, which include the grace of His forgiveness, we are moved to gratitude. A grateful heart is a joyous heart. It is not an act of maudlin sentimentality to count one's blessings. To keep those blessings in mind is a fortress against despair and an overflowing fountain of joy.

Supplication

In supplication we bring our own needs and the needs of others before God. We are to make such supplications according to His law. God is not pleased or honored when we ask for things that He has prohibited by His law. This is an area that is fraught with peril. Professing Christians often ask God to bless or sanction their sin. They are even capable of telling their friends they have prayed about a certain matter and God has given them peace despite what they prayed for was contrary to His will. Such prayers are thinly veiled acts of blasphemy, and we add insult to God when we dare to announce that His Spirit has sanctioned our sin by giving us peace in our souls. Such a peace is a carnal peace and has nothing to do with the peace that passes understanding, the peace that the Spirit is pleased to grant to those who love God and love His law.

When we enter our supplications in behalf of others, we are participating in the priesthood of all believers and are doing what Luther described as "being Christ to our neighbor." Intercessory prayer imitates the work of Christ Himself, who ever intercedes for His people.

Just as redemption is a trinitarian work, so, in the economy of redemption, prayer is a trinitarian work. The Father commands us to pray. He hears our prayers. He answers our prayers. But when we pray to Him we are not alone in our endeavor. The Father has appointed the Son to be our Intercessor. Christ enhances the efficacy of our prayers by mediating them to the Father by His own intercession. That is why we pray through Christ and in His name.

Likewise, in the economy of redemption the Holy Spirit is sent to us both by the Father and the Son to assist us in prayer. He aids us in preparing our souls to pray in a proper attitude and to pray according to the Father's will. The more we seek the assistance of the Spirit the more answers to prayer we see simply because we are praying within the will of the Father. The Spirit Himself is invisible to our eyes, but His work illumines our minds to the secret things of God.

The Providence of God is our fortress, our shield, and our very great reward. It is what provides courage and perseverance for His saints. This book but scratches

the surface of the mysteries that are hidden in His great providence. May it function as a stimulus to delve deeper into the matter for all who read it.