YouTube site: Ligonier Ministries
The following lecture on prayer is from a teaching series by R C Sproul of Ligonier Ministries. Links are at the end of this post.
Video highlights follow video:
If God is Sovereign, Why Pray?: Prayer with R.C. Sproul
Sermon HIGHLIGHTS [bracketed statements, emboldening and underscoring are mine]:
- Our prayer life is intimate related to the providence of God
- We pray for God’s provisions
- The doctrine of providence: God governs the entire universe and all things in it; He is sovereign over everything that takes place
- If God is sovereign and ordains all that comes to pass, then why pray?
- Simple answer: God not only orders the ends but also the means of all in His universe
- For example, the preaching of the word is a means that God uses to bring about His plan of redemption
- God brings increase, regarding preaching; He uses that means for His purposes / ends
- Therefore, we have a human responsibility to be preaching His word
- The same can be said for prayer; He works in and through prayer; that should encourage us to pray; furthermore, we are commanded to pray
- Does prayer change God’s mind?
- No
- What would have to happen for God to change His mind?
- Say, God has plan ‘A,’ and is about to implement His plan, based on His absolute wisdom and total righteousness and integrity
- God is utterly incapable of having an evil or foolish design
- Then you pray, and now God has new information to consider regarding His plan…. You ask God to do things your way…. You become God’s counselor…
- You want God to go to plan ‘B’
- What kind of God do you have if you think you have to inform Him of details on earth?
- The scriptures tell us that the Lord knows what you need before you ask…
- Many conclude, from such scriptures, why ask then?
- Since God knows every hair on your head [Mat 10:30,31]
- He knows every thought before you think it [Psalm 139; Psa_94:11; Mat_9:4; Luk_9:47; Joh_2:24-25; 1Co_4:5…]
- There is nowhere you can go to escape His presence [Ps. 139:7; Jer 23:23, 24; Job 34:21,22]
- He knows your needs, but He requires you to come into His presence and tell Him those needs
- Eze 36:37 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “I will also let the house of Israel inquire of Me to do this for them: I will increase their men like a flock. [Eze_14:3, Eze_20:3, Eze_20:31; Psa_10:17, Psa_102:17; Isa_55:6-7; Jer_29:11-13, Jer_50:4-5; Zec_10:6, Zec_10:9, Zec_13:9; Mat_7:7-8; Php_4:6; Heb_4:16, Heb_10:21-22; Jas_4:2-3; 1Jn_5:14]
- He doesn’t require that you pray for His benefit, education or edification
- Who is prayer for? You
- His command that you pray is an invitation into the sacred presence of the Almighty in heaven itself
- In His presence, you will find encouragement and peace… [see Study Recommendations for some scriptures on that]
- Regarding the sovereignty of God: He knew what you were going to ask before you asked it, and that has been considered in His plan of redemption
- Consider the above question another way: does prayer have any impact on what actually comes to pass? Yes
- James 5: 13-18 –
- 13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 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. 17 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. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
- The epistle of James is wisdom literature: i.e., it is very Hebrew, usually having short, pithy; unlike the dialectic writing of the apostle Paul
- James’ remarks are generally true –
- Example of the saints praying for Peter and when he was freed from jail, they were slow to believe God answered their prayers
- Acts 12:5 Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. 6 And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. 7 Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands…
- Shall we assume that the saints were not praying for James? God answered their prayers for Peter
- Acts 12:1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. 2 Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
- Another scripture about God not answering prayer: Paul’s prayer about his thorn in the flesh [see 2 Cor. 12]
- That is, there is no guarantee that a Christian will escape suffering, disease and death
- The following portion of James prayer is often misapplied:
- James 5: 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick
- An entire theology has emerged around that idea, ‘faith healing’
- The faith healers teach that if you are not delivered from your illness… by God, then it is your fault: you didn’t have sufficient faith
- They believe that if you have true faith, then you’ll never be sick…
- Name it and claim it, in your prayers to God
- The above ideas are a gross distortion of the biblical picture of what prayer is supposed to be and to do
- Some say, to use the condition, ‘if it be your will’ when praying is sinful, because it is always God’s will to heal
- What does that say about Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane?
- Mark 14:36 And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”
- Was that an act of unbelief by Jesus?
- Regarding God’s will in things concerning us:
- James 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
- The prayer of faith, “James 5:15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick” is the prayer that trusts God for the outcome
- Even if God says ‘No,’ as He did to Jesus in Gethsemane
- The posture towards God that Jesus took in Gethsemane was also taken by Job in the following verse: Job 13:15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him…
- Therefore, when we pray, we must remember Who it is that we are talking to, whose will is sovereign
- So, to say ‘if it be Thy will’ is not an act of unbelief, it is an act of trust
- James won’t let us retreat into fatalism and say, Que sera, sera, what will be, will be; I really don’t have to pray seriously
- James 5:16 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
- Does prayer change things, James indicates that it does, much
- He doesn’t say, the cavalier, casual, insipid prayer of an unrighteous man avails much
- ‘Righteous man’ relatively speaking
- Fervency: praying with some degree of passion proportionate to the severity of your need
- Luke 18:1-8 contains the story of the persistent widow or the unjust judge: she pestered him until he answered her prayer
- Luke 18:1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,
- Jesus indicated we were to see that even if a sinful judge will eventually respond to a prayer, how much more, our Father in heaven
- Luke 18:7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
- Therefore, men ought always to pray
- If you are about to lose heart, to give up; then chances are that we have been lax in our prayer
- Because there is a corollary between prayer and courage; prayer and hope
- Prayer is a mandate
- Prayer is also a great privilege
Benefits of prayer, one scripture ref:
Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
Narrative and links that accompanied the above video at YouTube:
Video-page link: https://www.youtube.com/@ligonier/videos
475,799 views Oct 7, 2020
As Christians, we are given the privilege and responsibility of communicating with the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Yet many Christians neglect prayer. In this series, Dr. R.C. Sproul demonstrates that intimate communication with God is at the heart of our relationship to Him. Through Christ, we are accepted by God and enabled to call upon Him as our Lord and Father.
This message is from R.C. Sproul’s 6-part teaching series Prayer. Learn more: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series…