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The Sovereignty of
God and Prayer
I Jn. 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have
in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us
Prayer is a fantastic subject that conjures
up all types of thoughts. There are very few people who have never prayed
… and, of course, there are different views on what prayer actually is.
Some people think it is similar to the
‘rubbing of the lamp’ and the genie appears, i.e. when you need God, pray
and He’ll come and almost-magically answer your every request.
I remember a lovely man in my hometown and he
used to be asked to people’s homes to pray for the sick. He would lay hands
on them, pray over them and tell them God was going to heal them. He
then went home and told God He had to heal them otherwise He
(God) wasn’t living up to His promises. What happened when the person wasn’t
healed? Well, it was quite simple, - it wasn’t God’s fault, or the healer’s
fault … and it’s easy to see whose fault it was, - it was the fault of the
person who wanted the healing … for they didn’t believe hard enough
to be healed!
On the other hand, there are some of us who
don’t like to ‘bother’ God too much and we wouldn’t even think of asking Him
for help with the most ordinary things in life.
What does the Bible teach about the
Sovereignty of God and true prayer? … because only what the Bible says about
prayer is true.
The Source of our Confidence in Prayer
this is the confidence that
we have in him
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We have been considering the Sovereignty of
God and I hope you hold on tight to the fact that He is the absolute
all-authority Whose Word is obeyed to every letter. … He is the
Source of our confidence in prayer. |
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We are confident in the fact that His plan
is not ‘make-it-up-as-you-go-along’ but His plan was formed, - every last
piece of it, down to the most minute detail, - His plan was formed in the
vastness of His mind in eternity from before the foundation of the world. |
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He formed His plan without any outside
interference or without any collaboration or cooperation from angels or
any of creation. |
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His plan is only and solely just that,
- His! From beginning to end … no outside interference or
contribution; every part of it is simply His. |
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Those parts of it we cannot understand He
allowed, - … and who are you and I to question Him? |
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But even out of the most harrowing of
circumstances God has prepared a way that leads to His glory. He proved it
when He brought His children out of Egypt and Babylon. |
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Surely He proved it again after what must
be one of the darkest periods in human history when He brought the Jews
out from the Holocaust and from all over the world, - when no-one would
have given much for their future. …
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These people who were so defeated and
humiliated, just three years after they were released, were established
in their own homeland 2534 years after they had been taken prisoner from
it by King Nebuchadnezzar. |
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Who else could have achieved such a task
that He promised as far back as the Old Testament … but God! |
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We need never underestimate God’s
power because He can never be held back! You see, this is how we
can have confidence as we speak to Him in prayer! |
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There is absolutely no way His plan can be
interfered with, changed, or knocked off track because this is what the
Bible so plainly teaches about the magnitude and the magnificence of our
Almighty God. |
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Nothing can disrupt His plan or cause Him
to consider changing it; the will and plans of men have tried but they are
no match for the will and plan of Almighty God … for the Bible says, Dan. 4:35 all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of
heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his
hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? |
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Why do we change our minds? Why do we
change our plans? We change … because better ideas come into our heads.
Remember though, God is perfect and He all that He has done and all that
He has planned is perfect and He has no need to change His design or alter
His plan and purpose. |
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Again, the Bible underlines this great
truth, - His purposes are eternal, not to be wavered or changed by
anything temporal. |
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You see, this is how important it is to
grasp hold of the fact that the Sovereignty of God is the source of our
confidence in Him. |
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It is a tremendous truth that God’s people
must never lose hold of but firmly trust in, - my praying to Him is safely
having the confidence upon Who He is and what He has willed! |
The Scope of our Confidence in Prayer
if we ask any thing according to his will
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I’ve heard some people, – with tears in
their eyes, - talk about how their loved one would not have died so
tragically if they had prayed. The implication was that if they had prayed
more God would have done something different. |
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You may remember the little slogan that
used to be so popular, “Prayer Changes Things”; and some people believe
they can convince God to change His mind and do what they desire Him to
do.
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“God, You see my heart is breaking and
like the loving Father You are You’ll come down from Heaven and answer
my prayer and give me what I want”. |
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Well, I hope I’ve got it across already
that it ought not to be my purpose in prayer to impose my will upon
God; my purpose in prayer is that my will becomes subservient to His and
that when I pray I seek to have confidence to
ask … according to his will. |
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Rom. 8:28 promises me, - whatever the
circumstances that He has it all worked out,
we know that all things work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
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It emphasises the fact that I am
powerless to do anything but seek the strength and company of God Who
makes me confident because He has me in the palm of His hand. |
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Yes, I believe, beyond any shadow of a
doubt that God could come in and wipe away the cancerous growth that
spreads through the body, - I have absolutely no doubt He could do it! …
And there are occasions when He has completely healed a person
suffering from a disease that the doctors said was going to kill them.
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I’m standing here this evening because
God touched my life and healed me when the doctors had forecast all
sorts of things for my future! God overrules and God can do anything He
has set His mind to do according to His eternal plan. |
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People prayed for me, and Pearl and Philip and my family in Northern
Ireland and it was God’s will to heal me and set me on my feet again.
People prayed, and in accordance with the will of God He healed me! |
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Some He heals, some He chooses not to; Why?
Does He love me more than He loves them? No, but He works within the scope
of His eternal will … that ultimately brings glory to His Name the way He
planned it. |
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I know of sincere believers who used to
follow Christ faithfully but they have grown lukewarm/cold because they
didn’t get the answer they thought they deserved to their prayers. |
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But, look, God is bigger than you and me.
He sees what we cannot see. The glory of the fact is that He knows what He
is doing … for He has the eternal picture.
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Just think what would happen if we
managed to convince Him we knew a better way of doing things than He had
planned! |
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Daniel, what did you think of God’s plan
when you were being led along that path to the lion’s den and you were
cast into those ferocious creatures … Here’s the answer,
Dan. 6:22 My God hath sent his
angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: ... |
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Job, how did you pray when the pain of the
boils was all over your body and your heart was breaking because you lost
your loved ones? Job tells us He was trusting in God as Sovereign,
19:25 I know that my redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And
though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see
God. |
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Our Lord Jesus Christ, as He agonised in
the Garden of Gethsemane, He cried with real pain in His voice,
Mt. 26:42 O my
Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will
be done. |
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You see, the will of God is for His glory,
and all His plans lead towards that end.
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It might mean pain and all sorts of
anguish we don’t understand but when we pray trusting that He knows best
even in those circumstances He blesses us in our weakness and at those
times of trusting in His will we feel Him closest. |
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Those were the circumstances Joseph Scriven
wrote the hymn, “What a Friend we have in Jesus”. |
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We don’t need to always understand the path
He takes us along but we need to be confident that the path along which He
leads us is the one where the Shepherd leads the sheep safely back to the
fold. |
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The source and the scope of our
confidence in prayer |
The Security of our Confidence in Prayer
he heareth us … I Jn. 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him,
that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us
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The purpose of prayer is not to relegate
God as a type of ‘genie in the bottle’ to get Him to do whatever we want
Him to do. The purpose is greater than that because He wants us to trust
Him and feel secure in the knowledge that He knows the way ahead. |
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Since we came across to Scotland sixteen
years ago there have been times of sadness and illness when we would have
loved to have been with our family and friends … but that wasn’t the way
the Lord had worked it out. |
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You see, we believe God has called us to
Scotland away from our families and all that that means. It is nothing to
do with career aspirations that we are in Scotland, - we are here simply
because we believe God has us here … we are altogether confident God has
us in Scotland and it is something He planned in that vast expanse of
eternity. |
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I don’t believe in chance or good fortune,
- neither should any Christian for there is no such thing. When I pray I’m
not hoping God knows what He’s doing or am I even thinking I could change
His mind … I know He knows what He’s doing! |
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I have every confidence that everything He
does He does well, at the right time, and for the right purposes … because
He is God and He can’t do anything wrong. |
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It doesn’t mean I understand … but it
means, at the end of the day, I am secure in the fact that He knows
exactly what He is doing for that is the way He planned it! |
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That is how we are to enjoy
the security of our confidence in prayer. |
Conclusion
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Remember how the Lord Jesus told us to
start our praying with the thoughts in our mind,
Mt. 6:9 Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed
be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in
heaven. … You see … He was teaching
us about the Sovereignty of God in our praying. |
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Read the prayers of the Old Testament and
the New Testament saints and you will see they all believed in Sovereignty
of God in their praying. |
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They had no fickle “Prayer changes things”
attitude; they didn’t feel God had to have help making up His mind and
arriving at the right decision. |
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When you come to God in prayer – for it to
be real prayer – you must recognise He is Sovereign,
otherwise you insult Him and you waste your own time and energy. |
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In prayer, - no matter what your prayer is,
- He wants you to worship Him as the Eternal, Omnipotent, All-Satisfying
God … for by the way you pray He wants to hear you bringing Him glory.
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He can see no matter how dark it is all
around you you are trusting confidently in Him and no-one else. |
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And the more you pray and trust Him the
more you grow in grace and in your understanding of Him and His ways. |
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Jesus said,
Mt. 6:8 your Father knoweth what things ye have
need of, before ye ask him. … Then,
why ask Him? You ask Him becomes He wants to hear and enjoy the glory and
honour that one of His children brings to His heart every time you pray. |
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“Lord, I’m not here to change Your mind, …
but Lord, help me to understand – show me – the powerfulness of Your
presence so that I shall glory in Your Name!” |
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A.W. Pink said, “Prayer is a coming to God,
telling Him our need …, committing our way unto the Lord, and then leaving
Him to deal with the case as seemeth Him best”. |
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At almost the beginning of the Bible
Abraham recognised the Sovereignty of God and pleaded before Him,
Gen. 18:25 Shall not the Judge of all the earth
do right? |
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At almost the conclusion of the Bible the
disciple of the Lord Jesus put it like this,
I Jn. 5:14 this is the confidence that we have in
him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us |
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… The Source, the Scope and the
Security, - that is how we can be so confident as we come before our
Sovereign God, - our King of kings, the Alpha and Omega, the Lord of
Hosts, the Lord God Almighty, the Everlasting God, - … that is how we can
be so confident as we come in humble and believing prayer. |
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