Bible-fueled, Bible-driven prayer should indeed be the primary spiritual discipline in the lives of Jesus-followers; but why? What does prayer really accomplish? I tried to show you last Sunday from the prayerful way the apostles handled a ministry crisis in Acts 6 the importance of keeping prayer primary in our lives—that when prayer is primary, gospel proclamation remains our priority, direction for decisions is more clearly discerned, and the gospel message and gospel messengers are multiplied. Those are just a few of the many positive outcomes of devoting ourselves to God through prayer. But did God decide to do those things in the early church just because the apostles prayed? And will He decide to do what we ask just because we pray and ask?
The Bible teaches that God’s will and plan are fixed, and that they have been fixed from eternity past; they’re definite; they’re going to happen; they won’t be altered in any way by any means. This includes not only God’s plan for the movements of the most remote galaxy right down to the tiniest subatomic particle, but also His plan for the conception, birth, life, death, and eternal destiny of each and every person. That’s right, Scripture shows us that God has ordained from eternity past those who will inherit eternal life through the blood of Christ and those who will inherit eternal punishment through rebellion and rejection of Jesus. So, this raises an important question: If God’s will and plan for the universe and people are so fixed, why does the Bible put so much emphasis on prayer—how can the same Paul who tells the Ephesians in Eph. 1, “In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will,” then say in Eph. 6, “Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel…” And why would Paul then say to Timothy (an early leader of the Ephesian church), “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people…that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life…”? If God predestines some for salvation, why would praying for Paul’s gospel mission matter? Why would praying for Christians to have peaceful and quiet lives matter? Why would praying for anything matter?
Christ-followers have to walk some narrow lines when it comes to how we live our beliefs. When our Book—the Book God has given us to both know Him and make Him known in the world—presents us with two such seemingly contradictory concepts as prayer and predestination, if we’re going to truly honor God we’ve got to roll up our mental sleeves and do some hard looking and listening. If you find prayer a difficult discipline to develop and maintain, predestination cannot become your excuse for saying, Well, prayer doesn’t matter that much anyway. And if the idea of God being a predestining God bugs you and offends your notion of free will, if you love the Bible you can’t just shrug it off and say, Well Granny always said, ‘Prayer changes things,’ and I agree with Granny.”
I’m here to tell you, friends, it doesn’t have to be one or the other; they go together! That’s right: predestination and prayer aren’t contradictory; they’re complementary! As a pastor it might be easier to say, I don’t care what you believe about predestination, as long as you’re a praying church, I’ll be happy. But what we believe about God affects how we relate to Him, and if we believe wrongly, we’ll relate wrongly. I want us to be a church that loves prayer and predestination because not only are they both biblical, they’re both beneficial. Praying to a God who bases His decisions on what we pray or don’t pray for is to pray to a lesser God than the Bible’s God. And to not pray because God predestines is to disobey the Bible’s God. But praying to a God who orders all things in His universe—right down to every word every person will ever say—is not only to pray to the Bible’s God but to have the fullest, most biblical view of prayer possible, and to embrace the fact that this God employs our prayers in the execution of His fixed eternal will and plan. Simply put, God ordains (or predestines) not only the ends but the means to those ends; and the prayers of His people are part of His means to His ends.
God Ordains the Ends and the Means
In a moment we’ll look at the four facets of verbal communication with God that Paul urges upon Timothy (i.e., supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings) and how they integrate into the outworking of God’s pre-ordained plan. But before that I want to show you some examples of the big idea I just gave you: that God ordains both the ends and the means of His plan.
First, one of the texts often cited by those who have a problem with predestination is Exodus 32—it’s the classic “Prayer changes things” passage. God rescues the Israelites from Egypt, but when they fall into idolatry in the desert, He tells Moses, “I’m going to destroy them and start all over with you.” Moses then pleads with God not to destroy them, and the Bible says, “the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on His people.” Some translations say plainly, “God changed His mind.” Now, when so much of the Bible says that God doesn’t change and that His plans never fail, do you think it’s possible that God is giving us here a glimpse of how He integrates human prayer into His divine plan? Did God ever plan to destroy Israel? No. Was He angry enough at their idolatry to do so? Yes. Would He have been justified in doing so? Sure. His end all along was to preserve Israel so that His Son could one day emerge from Israel in order to redeem His true people from Israel and all nations. But God also ordained Moses’ prayer in eternity past as the means by which He would preserve Israel as the nation from which the Messiah would come. Moses’ prayer didn’t catch God by surprise. God ordained the end, and God ordained the means!
Another example is Peter walking on water in the New Testament. The disciples are in the boat on the lake; a storm is raging and Jesus comes walking to them on the water. Peter sees Jesus and asks Him to summon him out of the boat to join Him on the water; and Jesus does. Now, could Jesus have enabled all the disciples to walk on the water? Sure, but He didn’t. Why? because none of the other disciples asked for it. Jesus’ divine pre-ordained end was to have Peter walk on water so He could teach him a lesson about faith. And Jesus’ pre-ordained means to that end was Peter’s spoken request (and, since Jesus is God, for the sake of this sermon we’ll call Peter’s request a prayer).
In his book, “Christian Theology,” Millard Erickson sees the centurion’s request for his servant’s healing and the woman with a bleeding problem clinging to Jesus’ robe as examples of faith, demonstrated in petition, that resulted in God’s working. He goes on to say, “It is vital, then, that a prayer be uttered, for without it the desired result will not come to pass. This means that prayer is more than self-stimulation. It is not a method of creating a positive mental attitude in ourselves so that we are able to do what we have asked to have done. Rather, prayer is in large part a matter of creating in ourselves (or I would say ‘of God creating in ourselves’) a right attitude with respect to God’s will.” [1]
Also important to keep in mind is how prayer creates in us a favorable attitude toward God’s will even when we don’t get what we request. Noting how Jesus asked His Father three times to let the cup of crucifixion pass from Him, and how Paul prayed three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed, and yet in each case, something more needful was granted: Jesus went to the cross to die for our sins; Paul learned that God’s grace was sufficient for him in times of suffering, I love how Erickson concludes this section. He says, “The believer can pray confidently, knowing that our wise and good God will give us, not necessarily what we ask for, but what is best. For, as the psalmist put it, “no good thing does he [the Lord] withhold from those whose walk is blameless”” (a quote from Psalm 84).[2]
If you came today under the impression that God has the end (and maybe some of the big means) of His eternal plan mapped out, but that His smaller, daily means of accomplishing those ends are somewhat fluid and undetermined, I hope these examples help you see how He’s got it ALL mapped out, even using our little prayers as His means of moving the world toward His perfect future! Granny’s right, prayer changes things! It’s perfectly okay to say, If we pray, God will act, just so long as we understand that our praying was just as planned by God as His acting. Want healing in your marriage? Pray for it! If you pray and invite others to pray for it that’s a pretty good sign God intends to somehow use those prayers as means to His ends in your marriage! Want that friend or loved one to be saved? Pray for them! Don’t you want your prayers to be part of God’s pre-ordained means of bringing them to faith in Christ? And, if you pray in faith and labor obediently in working for your marriage and witnessing to your friends, even if God says no to your request, remember Psalm 84:11: “No good thing does the Lord withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” We won’t get all of God’s good things in this world, but we will one day! They’ll come as rewards in heaven for our faithful obedience in spite of what looked like a lot of “no” answers to our prayers and labors in this world. Our prayers aren’t just God’s means to good ends in this life; they’re also His pre-ordained means to His good (and glorious) ends for us in the life to come. So, let’s take a look at some different facets of prayer.
Paul says to Timothy in 2:1, “First of all, then, I urge…” We mustn’t overlook the urgency of Paul’s instruction. Why is it so urgent? Paul states Timo-thy’s overall mission in rather drastic terms in 1:18, “This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.” Spiritual warfare is Timothy’s business, thus communing with God in purposeful, intentional, aggressive prayer is his weapon, and it’s Paul’s “first” instruction to Timothy. Now interestingly, though Paul gives several other instructions in the letter, he doesn’t label these subsequent instructions ‘second,’ ‘third,’ ‘fourth,’ ‘fifth,’ etc. I believe it’s Paul’s way of saying, Look Timothy, there are lots of things you need to be doing as you lead this church: you need to make sure men and women are behaving appropria-tely, make sure you’re appointing godly leaders, guard your doctrine, don’t rebuke but encourage older men, make sure your elders and widows are properly cared for, watch yourself around the young women, and so on; but Timothy, as important as all of these things are, they’re to be done against a backdrop of your (and the church’s) primary activity: prayer! “First (and foremost of all), then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.”
Supplications
There’s a lot of overlap between these four terms. They all relate very much to the exercise of prayer, but each is significant. Supplication is the acknow-ledgement of a very deeply felt need. It’s an entreaty, a desperate appeal—from the heart—for provision. Supplication comes first, because Paul knows that unless and until the heart is engaged in praying, it isn’t really praying. And no matter how well-supplied we might be, no person has any business praying to God apart from acknowledging some need. We’re all needy for something from God—always—especially in warfare! I know the Lord’s Prayer begins with adoration, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” But right after that we hear the first and fullest expression of need: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That petition really covers all the others.
We don’t need to press a hard and fast order out of these four. Supplication doesn’t need to come first every time, but a heart-felt appeal to God for some need should always be part of our prayers! Don’t just come to God like a buddy and talk about the weather. If we’re not aware of something we need from God, we’re either playing God ourselves or we’re just not very in touch with the spiritual war that’s going on around us. In battle there’s always needs! What are yours? What are the needs of others? And are you sharing them with God?
Prayers
Next we come to “prayers.” This term in Greek carries the meaning of conversation—that not only are we approaching God with a need, but we’re approaching to listen. Prayer is an exchange of wishes—we’re letting God know what we need or want, but we’re also listening to what He wants for or from us. In warfare, communication with central command has to be two ways. God, our Commander—even though He knows what we need before we ask—earnestly wants us to entreat Him with our needs. But we have to believe that He’s got intel and instructions for our next moves as well, and approach Him in a receptive spirit. This is why praying with our Bibles open is so important. We speak; He speaks!
Intercessions
Third is “intercession,” which has to do with hitting the mark (as in archery). It’s often set in opposition to the Greek word for “sin,” which means ‘to miss the mark’ (e.g. Rom. 3:23). Intercession is aligning and realigning our will to God’s will; it’s all about waiting, and discerning from God what attitudes or actions in a given situation will ‘hit’ rather than ‘miss’ the mark of righteousness; it’s about discerning His will and how best we’re to act as the instrument of His will. Paul wants Timothy to remember that God isn’t making things up as He goes along; He has a will and He’s adhering to a pre-ordained Master plan. It isn’t the Christian’s job to play guessing games with God’s will. We have a Bible for a reason; it shows us God’s priorities, what’s our business and what isn’t. When you’re unclear about what to do next, keep praying and keep doing what God has made clear thus far. That’s hitting the mark. That’s intercession.
Thanksgivings
Lastly we have “Thanksgivings.” This is straightforward enough. No prayer is complete without a spirit of gratitude to God for His goodness, provision, mercy, love, guidance… We’re probably all pretty good at thanking God for His blessings; but do we thank Him for burdens, brokenness, and difficulties? Our prayers are God’s predestined means to His predestined ends, but so are trials and tribulations. It does us no good to despise difficulties when God is using them to make us more like Christ. Paul said he would all the more gladly boast in his weaknesses that the power of Christ might rest upon him. That’s someone who’s come to see God’s means as just as ordained as God’s ends
Conclusion
Paul urges Timothy to approach God in these four ways—to pray in these ways for kings and all who are in high positions that we [the church] may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Plenty of Christians have heeded Paul’s instructions but were not granted to live out peaceful and quiet lives of dignity on earth. Paul himself was beheaded by the emperor he prayed for and witnessed to. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1500s was burned at the stake by bloody Mary in England after courageously withdrawing his forced recantations of biblical doctrine. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a faithful Lutheran who loved his native Germany and no doubt prayed for his Nazi captors, but they took him out and hung him just hours before his prison camp was liberated by the Allies.
Whatever the immediate outcome of our prayers for everyday people or for kings and rulers, whether for our earthly good or our eternal good, Paul says, “This is good, and it’s pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” Our prayers matter! Our prayers do things; they change things, because the same God who ordains the things that our prayers do and change ordains our prayers as the means to those doings and changings. Get busy praying—don’t miss out on the action! Church, will we lift and let our supplications, our prayers, our intercessions, our thanksgivings be God’s means to God’s ends whatever the immediate earthly outcome for us? Will we offer ourselves to the service of God and of the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who, as Paul says, “gave himself as a ransom for all”? Prayer can be nothing but a formality unless flows from faith in Jesus.
[1] Millard Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 431.