Prayer Changes Things

We had an interesting discussion at cell group this evening on whether prayer changes things.

Does prayer change things? One view is that prayer doesn't change things - it simply changes us and aligns us to God's will. But this assumes that our prayers and God's will are mutually exclusive.

(Then why pray? Because God commands us to pray? Of course, God commands us to pray. But surely God commands us to pray precisely because prayer changes things, not in spite of the fact that prayer doesn't change things!)

Why assume that our prayers and God's will are mutually exclusive? Why not rather say that our prayers and God's will are related? In particular, our prayers are the means by which God accomplishes His will - His good, pleasing and perfect will.

For example, it is God's will that 'we may gain a heart of wisdom' (Psalm 90:12, NIV). At the same time, God commands us to ask Him for wisdom.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." - James 1:5 (NIV)

Praying for wisdom is the means by which God gives us wisdom. This is not to say that God only gives us wisdom when we ask for it. Certainly, God in His sovereignty and mercy also gives us wisdom even when we do not ask for it. The point is that God hears our prayers when we ask Him for wisdom.

Indeed, James goes on to say that 'you do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures' (James 4:2-3, NIV).

An Objection

One might object that this view - that our prayers are the means by which God accomplishes His will - makes God dependent on us. However, there is a difference between a) God changing His mind based on His latest knowledge of our free choices as they come to pass and b) God working all things for His glory and our good based on His infallible foreknowledge of our free choices from eternity. The first position is the open theist position and the second position is the middle knowledge position.

The open theist position holds that the future is open (hence the name "open theism") because God cannot know the future. On the other hand, the middle knowledge position holds that God is in control of all things because He knows the future and works our free choices - including our prayers - for His glory and our good. (Calvinism holds that God is in control of all things because He causes our choices, which are not free.)

Personally, I believe that prayer changes things. Not because God depends on our prayers, but because God responds to our prayers!

The Middle Knowledge Position

God's knowledge of what we could freely choose to do in all possible worlds is His natural knowledge, His knowledge of all things by the very nature of who He is.

God's knowledge of what we will do in this particular world - the world which God has created and we live in - is His free knowledge, His knowledge of the world which He has freely created. And this particular world is the best possible world in which all things work 'for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose' (Romans 8:28, NIV). In creating the best possible world, God works our free choices for His glory and our good.

God's knowledge of what we would freely do in all possible worlds is His middle knowledge, His knowledge of what happens between His natural knowledge and His free knowledge (hence the name "middle knowledge").

*Knowing what we would freely do in all possible worlds, God freely creates the best possible world in which our free choices only ever work for His glory and our good.*

Links: Prayer According to God's Will (5 Dec 10), A Molinist View of Prayer (31 Dec 10)