Prayer Versus God's Plan

The scriptures referred to are mentioned in the text.

When asked why we pray, a wise man replied, “Because we can't help it.” When someone we love is sick or injured, when we find ourselves in desperate situations, when despair threatens to engulf us, most of us instinctively turn to prayer. When our loved one gets better, when our crisis is over, some of us spontaneously thank God. When we encounter the beauty of creation, on either a visual or a conceptual level, a few of us praise God. And a very small number simply pray every day.

The question from our sermon suggestion box is about prayer. But it is not about the psychological reasons for prayer but the theological reasons. Specifically, “If God has a plan, why do we pray?” If God is carrying out a program, why do we bother to ask him for anything or try to persuade him to do anything? If it is in his plan, he will do it. If not, he won't. Our desires do not enter into it. Right?

There is a certain logic to this position. If God is truly in charge and if he knows everything, how can we hope to influence his actions? Aren't we being egocentric to even think he would alter his plans simply because we asked him to?

Yet the Bible, the very book that reveals both God's omniscience and omnipotence, tells us to pray. (Philippians 4:6) It tells us that God does answer prayer. (Matthew 6:6) It even makes some rather breathtaking promises. Jesus tells us, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13) That's a rather spectacular statement. How can it be true?

Before we answer that question, we must first deal with the original one: “If God has a plan, why do we pray?” Though the word “plan” never appears in the Bible, there is obviously a design or overall plot to the story of God and humans. Close to the beginning we are told that sin has caused a breach between God and us. Humanity tries and fails to bridge that gap and God takes the initiative. God chooses a people through which he will bless all of humanity. (Genesis 12:2-3) He educates these people about his nature. (Psalm 103)

The Bible starts with all humanity and then narrows the focus onto the descendants of Abraham, and then to the descendants of Isaac, not Ishmael, then the descendants of Jacob, not Esau, then the descendants of Judah, not the other 11 sons of Israel, then the descendants of David and finally comes to Jesus, in whom God reveals his love and his holiness, his justice and his mercy. Jesus' death atones for our sins and with his resurrection, his nature is bestowed upon the apostles. Through them we see the blessing of what God has done in Jesus is given to Jews and then Gentiles, and then spreads throughout the Roman empire and then onto the whole world. That is how God has worked and is working to redeem humanity.

So the question is: just how detailed is the plan? Does God have every tiny little thing nailed down? If so, then prayer would seem to be futile. But if God's plan was that minutely worked out, human beings would be reduced to mere pawns. On the other hand, if sin and evil are the result of our misusing our free will, and he is going to all this trouble, not to mount a puppet show, nor to coerce us but to woo us, then you would expect him to give us some role to play in this story. If God wants us to learn to act virtuously, he needs to give us some space in which to act.

Look at it this way. If you merely want to get your child from the car to the house, you can carry him. But if you also want him to learn to walk, you have to let him make the journey himself. Of course, the route he takes may be fraught with danger—not bumping into the car door, avoiding the anthill, navigating the stairs. And as he gets older, his path may become as circuitous as Billy's in one of those Family Circus Sunday comics, where he traverses the whole neighborhood rather than simply going from the car to the house. But he won't learn to walk if you keep him strapped to you like a papoose. God wants us to learn to walk with him. (Micah 6:8)

So God must leave some part of his plan to us. Think of a movie or TV production. With many millions of dollars on the line, a director cannot leave much to chance. But why hire gifted actors if you don't let them use their talents and insights? Jeremy Brett played what many think was the definitive Sherlock Holmes in the British TV series that ran in the 1980s and 90s. To get the authenticity right, the actor carried a copy of the original stories with him. As the series got popular, Brett worried about how his portrayal would affect the children watching. In the early stories we see that Holmes uses cocaine, just as in the books. In one of the later written stories Watson tells us that he did wean the detective from the drug. So when they were filming a story where Watson has taken Holmes to the seaside to recover, and they come upon a plot to murder people using a dangerous drug, Brett insisted they film a brief scene where, wordlessly, Holmes buries his syringe, and symbolically his drug habit, in the sand on the beach. It's not in the original story nor was it in the script but the director let the actor do this small scene because it was perfectly in line with what we know of Holmes.

A good actor knows that often it is the little details that reveal character: a look, a gesture, an inflection. While God doesn't allow us to dictate the direction of the story, perhaps he leaves us places where we can ad-lib. We need to stay in character, of course. Jesus rejected James and John's suggestion that they call down fire from heaven on a town that didn't receive him. (Luke 9:52-55) That wasn't in line with his Spirit or his mission. So we must ask ourselves “What would Jesus do?” But, within limits, God lets us suggest in prayer how certain parts can be done and how some subplots may unfold. Like a director, the final decision is God's, but our input is welcome.

This might also explain why Jesus makes such extravagant promises in regards to the answer to prayer. God will grant anything—as long as it is in accord with his design and in the spirit of his endeavor to redeem us and the rest of his creation. (1 John 5:14-15) The Bible never says you will get anything you ask for, period. The promises about prayers are always qualified. We must ask in Jesus' name. (John 15:16) We must ask in faith. (Matthew 21:22) 2 or 3 must be in agreement. (Matthew 18:19) God will give us what we need but not everything we desire. We cannot expect to receive the things we ask for out of selfish motives. (James 4:3) We are also told that our anger does not produce God's righteousness so we must not ask in that spirit. (James 1:2) Jesus even tells us not to approach God if we have a bad relationship with someone. “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your sibling has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your sibling and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24) We cannot be in God's will if we are at odds with our brothers and sisters, just as we cannot ask for his forgiveness if we withhold our forgiveness from others. (Matthew 6:14-15)

So does God answer prayers? Of course. Sometimes the answer is “Yes.” Still God can't say “yes” to all prayers, even to what seem to be relatively harmless requests. In an episode of 3^rd Rock from the Sun, Tommy, an alien trapped in the body of a teenage human, is on his high school basketball team. When at a game his coach prays for victory over their rivals, Tommy notices that the other team is also praying. “So we're praying that our god will beat their god?” he asks. “No,” says his coach. “We're praying to the same God.” Dumbfounded, Tommy asks, “Does anybody else see the conflict of interest here?” God cannot grant mutually exclusive or inherently impossible prayers.

Sometimes God's answer is “Not yet.” Jesus tells us to be persistent in prayer. (Luke 11:5-10) We need to remember that God's timetable is not ours. (2 Peter 3:8-9) Sometimes other things have to happen first. Sometimes we need to get ready or be made ready for what we ask. Sometimes we need more spiritual maturity. I think that's the case in the story of Adam and Eve. Why was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil there in the garden in the first place if it was never to be used? I think God didn't want them to have that knowledge yet for the same reason we are not explicit with our children as to why they are not to get into a car with strangers. You aren't going to tell a little kid that the reason is that the person may rape and kill them. They are not ready to handle that. Just so, Adam and Eve were not yet ready to handle the knowledge of exactly how God's gifts could be misused for evil and to harm each other. Had they obeyed, there may have been a day when God knew they could handle it. So we may need to exercise patience. (Hebrews 10:36) Because the answer might be “Not yet.”

Sometimes God's answer to a request may be “Yes, but not in the way you think I'll do it.” Because God knows what we need better than we do, he may answer in the spirit of what we ask but not in the way we want it done. We may ask for someone to love or for wealth and, rather than find a spouse or win the lottery, we may find that he has instead enriched our lives with friends or family. Joseph had dreams of being in charge of his brothers. He never thought that he would first become a slave and then a prisoner and finally end up as second-in-command of Egypt, keeping his family and many others from starving during a famine. Just because it is not exactly what we asked for doesn't mean that it is not his answer to our real needs.

God's answer to a request might be, “Actually, I have something else in mind for you.” Paul was a brilliant rabbi and a zealous Pharisee. He never imagined that he would see Jesus, the resurrected founder of the heretical sect he was trying to wipe out. He never thought that he would become not only a follower of Jesus but his apostle to the Gentiles. We often have an idea of what God's will for us is but he might have a surprising and much better mission in store for us.

Sometimes God's answer is “No.” As we said, we cannot expect God to grant us what is contrary to his Spirit, nor things that go against his plan. But sometimes he doesn't grant what seems to us to be a perfectly reasonable, holy and loving prayer. The most famous example of this is found in the story of Jesus in Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed. He did not want to be beaten and whipped and stripped and nailed to a cross. He prayed 3 times that God not make him go through all that. But he ended each prayer saying “Not my will but your will be done.” (Matthew 26:39-44) It turned out there was no other way that God could save us from the evil we have done, so Jesus accepted God's will. It was hard. On the cross he cried, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mark 15:34) I think that was what he dreaded the most: taking on the separation from God that should be ours as the result of our rejecting God. I think this is what the Apostle's Creed means when it says “he descended into hell.” To be separated from the one who has loved you from all eternity is hell. But Jesus accepted that because he trusted that this was God's way of absorbing all the evil of his creatures and transforming them into his children again. Jesus knew that even his most heartfelt desire as God's beloved Son could not veto God's loving plan to save us.

Perhaps God's reason for saying “No” is beyond understanding, the way your dog doesn't understand why you are not giving him a piece of your chocolate. He doesn't know that it could make him very sick. Or perhaps the suffering which God is not relieving is like the pain a baby experiences when he gets his immunization shots. He may even be feverish and achy the next day. The baby doesn't know that this is protecting him from the even worse pain and suffering of a disease that could otherwise leave him with brain or organ damage or just kill him. To the baby the shots seem to be both painful and unnecessary. We need to trust God just as the infant does its mother, even after she took him to the man with the hypodermic needles.

Although God has a plan and although we cannot fully comprehend certain parts of it, we mustn't think that God does not listen to us or that our prayers do not count. If anything, we are not bold enough in asking. The book of Hebrews says, “Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.” (Hebrews 4:16) As Paul points out, since God “did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not, with him, also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:31)

Originally preached on April 2, 2006. There has been some updating.