Praying to a sovereign God

One of the things us Reformed folks major in is the sovereignty of God. The truth that "God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass" (WCF III:1) is both a great comfort to us, and a humbling reminder of our place in God's universe. However, if we don't keep things in balance we can find ourselves using this doctrine as a cop out. For example, if God has foreordained whatsoever shall come to pass, why should we pray? Isn't God just going to do whatever he wants? And yet, we are commanded all throughout the Bible to pray. Why would God, the ultimate "First Cause," who knows the end from the beginning, command us to pray?

Consider these two questions, seemingly in opposition to the other:

1. If God has foreordained everything already, how can we pray in hopes of changing things?
2. If we are commanded to pray, then how can it be true that God is sovereign and has ordained all that comes to pass?

Peter Leithart examines this apparent paradox:

How can God respond to prayers, and yet not have a "real" (ie, a reciprocal, dependent) relation with the creation?

Perhaps there's a Trinitarian answer to this: In the creation, God responds to His own work. He makes light, and then He pronounces His work very good. This is not a matter of God patting Himself on the back. Rather, it is arguably the Father approving the work of His Word and Spirit, the two "hands" by which the Father works in the creation.

God's response to prayer is similar: The Spirit provokes our prayers, which we offer in the name of Jesus to the Father. When the Father responds to these Spirit-inspired prayers, He is responding to His own work. God is responding to God's work, the Father to the Spirit.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives a good definition of prayer (#98): "Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with the confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies." Leaving confession and thanksgiving aside for the time being, let's consider how it is that we are to "offer up our desires unto God."

First, let us not be so arrogant as to assume that God's eternal decrees were somehow dependent upon or determined by our foreseen prayers. Continue reading this post »