One of the most wonderful mysteries in the universe is that prayer changes things. God has so arranged his world that we have the ability to make significant choices, some good and some bad, which affect the course of history. One means God has given us to do this is prayer—asking him to act. Because he is all-wise and all-powerful, knowing ¡°the end from the beginning¡± (Isa. 46:10), he's able to weave our requests into his eternally good purposes.

At this point our thinking can seriously go astray in one of two directions.

The first is to say, ¡°If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, and if everything is preordained, then he's going to do whatever he wills anyway and thus our prayers can't have any significant effect. Sure, they may help us psychologically, such that talking to God helps us get things off our chest that may help us feel better, but prayers don't count for much in the grand scheme of things. So why bother?¡±

Here there's an overemphasis on God's absolute sovereignty.

The second route, though different from the first, ends up in the same place by denying the usefulness of prayer. Here's the objection: ¡°If human beings are free to make up their own minds, then God can't be absolutely sovereign; he must take risks such that human decisions can thwart his purposes, so there are severe limits to what we can ask for without undermining human freedom. If, for example, you have been praying for your sister to become a Christian, and God has done everything he can to bring her to himself, but somehow she won't surrender to him, why bother asking God to save her? It's out of order to pressure God to do more than he can do. So just give up on prayer.¡±

Here the emphasis rests on a certain understanding of human freedom (¡°libertarian¡±).

Strange Logic

Taken at face value, both objections appear to have some force, but only because they employ a strange ¡°logic¡± that goes beyond Scripture. It's always foolish and dangerous to play up one aspect of what the Bible teaches at the expense of something else it equally affirms. The God of the Bible is presented as the one who rules over all; he's all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful. He isn't surprised by anything we may think or do. On the other hand, Scripture also presents human beings as responsible moral agents who make significant choices, doing what we desire to do (¡°freedom of inclination¡±). God has chosen to relate to us personally without compromising the fact that he is God.

That said, Scripture describes the sovereign God as ¡°repenting¡± or ¡°relenting¡± in response to human prayer. Take Exodus 32, for instance. At this point in salvation history, the people of Israel have broken the Ten Commandments by building and worshiping a golden calf. Incensed, God vows to wipe them out. ¡°I have seen these people, and they are a stiff-necked people,¡± he says to Moses. ¡°Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation¡±. But Moses steps into the breach and reminds God of his promises, arguing his reputation will be brought into disrepute for saying one thing—¡°I will save the people¡±—and doing another—destroying them, appearing to renege on his promises to Abraham. Moses appeals to God as the sovereign king to show mercy. And that's exactly what happens: ¡°Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened¡±