If God Is Sovereign--Why Pray? 2 Corinthians 1:11 Message #7

The story is told about a small town in the South that for many years had been “dry” and so no alcohol was ever sold or served there.  But one day a businessman in the area decided to build a tavern.  In response to this new tavern, a group of Christians from a local Church became concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene.  Shortly after the prayer meeting that night, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

In the aftermath of the fire, the owner of the tavern sued the Church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible for his loss.  But the Church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible.  After his initial review of the case the presiding judge began the trial with an official statement.  He said: “No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear: the tavern owner believes in prayer, and the Christians do not.”

I don't think there is any doubt that we believe God does indeed answer prayer.  But given that belief, I wonder why it is that we pray as little as we do.  I wonder why our prayer meetings are as lackluster in attendance as they are.  Ironically, we believe in prayer but rarely pray.


There can be many reasons for this.  Some people simply don't believe in prayer.  They don't believe God responds to prayer.   They see prayer as a sentimental type of thing which probably more resembles talking to yourself than talking to God.  But then others who take their Bibles seriously and Bible doctrine seriously struggle too when it comes to prayer.   And the struggle I hear from some of these folks that is the result of their beginning to grapple with the subject of God's sovereignty is--If God is Absolutely Sovereign, why pray?

In other words, Why bother requesting that God do anything when, as the Bible teaches, everything has been ordained by Him beforehand?  If prayer consists of pleading with an unchangeable God to change His eternal and unalterable purposes, isn’t such an undertaking an effort in futility?  And the answer to that question is “YES”.  If all prayer consists of is trying to change God’s mind or trying to get God to act—then, yes it is a waste of time.

But that is not what prayer is all about.

Prayer is not just asking, it’s not just about getting.  Prayer is about communicating with God.  Talking with God as well as talking things over with God.  It encompasses thinking, feeling, speaking, and listening.  It’s a relational exercise or discipline designed to deepen our faith so as to increase the depth of our relationship with the Lord.

And prayer is also, among several other things, one of the primary and essential means by which God has ordained to accomplish His pre-ordained purposes.  It is this relationship between the sovereignty of God and the prayers of God’s people that the Bible is going to lead us into today as we continue in our study of 2 Corinthians.

But before jumping right into 2 Corinthians 1, I want to lay the foundation for us when it comes to what the Bible does teach about God’s sovereignty and then we’ll answer the question so many ask when they first hear of God’s providential sovereign control—“If God is absolutely sovereign—why pray?”

But before answering that question let’s take a look at the question itself—a question we have all probably asked one time or another.

The word, “if” in the question, “If God is Absolutely Sovereign why pray?” seems to suggest that God may not be Absolutely Sovereign- as though that issue is up for debate.  It isn’t. The Bible is crystal clear about this issue-

God is Absolutely Sovereign.  

Consider the following Scripture passages that speak of God’s sovereignty.

Isaiah 46:9-10

Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’

Psalm 115:3

Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases him.

Psalm 135:6

The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.

Daniel 4:35

All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.  No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”

2 Kings 19:25

“‘Have you not heard?  Long ago I ordained it.  In days of old I planned it now I have brought it to pass”

Isaiah 45:6-7

I am the LORD and there is no other.  The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity.  I am the LORD Who does all these things.

Proverbs 16:4

The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil.

Proverbs 16:9

The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

Proverbs 16:33

The Lot is cast into the lap but its every decision is from the LORD.

Job 42:2

I know that You can do all things and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.

Ephesians 1:11

We . . . having been predestined according to His purpose Who works all things after the counsel of His will.

Romans 9:15-16

I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

Acts 13:48

As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

You see, the Bible teaches that God not only brought creation into being together with all of its properties and powers but that He is also exercising sovereign control over it.  In fact, if the truth be known, God’s Word speaks more about God’s providence and absolute control over His creation than it does His work in creating. 

The Scriptures plainly teach that God exercises sovereign rule, authority, and control over Satan, demons, angels, stars, the physical universe, weather, plants, animals, nations, individual people, history, sin, death, coincidences, what we call luck, and all of life’s circumstances including any every person’s salvation.

And the primary reason for God’s providential governing authority, control, and sovereign power over his creation is that His very essence and nature as God demand it.  Because of Who God is and How Powerful God is—He has to be in control of all things.  His sovereignty and providence are the natural by-product of His attributes.  In fact, if God were not sovereignly in control of the creation, He would not be God.

So, with all this in mind—why pray when God is ultimately in ultimate control of everything?

I mean, if you know God is sovereign and you know God is all wise and all powerful and all knowing and has purposed everything from the beginning to the end and all the way through the middle, what in the world is the point of praying?

Because God told us to!

Because God does answer our prayers!

Because our prayers do matter and do make a difference!

Because God ordained the end including the means!

And Because God is glorified in answering our prayers!

These are the points Paul helps us to see in 2 Corinthians 1:11.

Let’s turn there and flesh them out of the verse.

Paul has been talking about his severe trial and how it brought him to his knees in order to teach him not to rely upon himself but upon God.

Then in verse 10, Paul makes the point that whereas God did deliver Timothy and him from this particular trial—there would be more trials and more deliverance coming in the future.  And that’s the way life is.  You just get through one problem and find yourself facing another.  That’s one of the things Paul is pointing out in verse 10.  We are going to always have trials and struggles but we are always going to experience God’s grace and help as well.

Then in verse 11, Paul brings his readers into the equation by making the point that through their prayers they are also helping and contributing to Paul’s present and future deliverance through his trials and troubles.

Listen to how the NASV and the ESV Bible translations render this verse.

You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.  (ESV)

You also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.  (NASV)

No matter how you render the original Greek of 2 Corinthians 1:11, it appears that Paul really believed that the prayers of God’s people did make a difference and would make a difference in his circumstances.

And so he is making the point that when we pray we are joining God in His work which, He ordained and is going to carry out.  In fact, we are joining Him through our prayers because this is exactly what God ordained that we would do so as to participate with Him as the means by which He fulfills His purpose and plan.

Furthermore, our prayers were ordained and prepared by God before the foundation of the world to be used in bringing about His purpose in Manchester today.  That’s what Ephesians 2:10 means when it says:   “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

The phrase—“prepared beforehand” is referring back to Ephesians 1:4 where Paul says we were chosen before the foundation of the world.  Thus, not only were we chosen for salvation before the foundation of the world was set but our good works including our prayers which God would use for His purpose were also ordained back then as well.  And furthermore, according to the rest of verse 11, our praying glorifies God because as we enter into this work of prayer—God is glorified when He answers our prayers that are in accord with His purpose.

And the more people there are who pray—the more people there will be to thank God for His answer—and thus the more people there are who are glorifying God and receiving the joy of experiencing answered prayer as well as working with God to accomplish His purpose.

Now Paul wrote more about the sovereignty of God than anyone and he knew that God’s purposes and plans were not only perfect—they were perfectly set from before the foundation of the world and would not and could not ultimately be changed.  And yet he believed in the power of prayer and exhorted believers throughout his epistles to pray without ceasing.

Look at what he says in Romans 15:30-32:

Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints;  so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.

Paul makes the point here that it was these believers and their striving together with him in prayer that God was going to use to rescue him and do all the other things he was asking God to do.

Paul believed in the sovereignty of God but knew that the sovereign purpose of God included the sovereign means of God and those means included the prayers of God's people.

Now check out Philippians 1:19:

For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

In this passage, Paul is attributing his future deliverance to the prayers of the Philippian church and the Holy Spirit--Who is the provision of Jesus Christ.

I take this to mean that God's sovereign purpose will be achieved as the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the prayers of God's people are used as the means to bring about that sovereign goal.

And remember what James, Jesus’ half-brother had to say about prayer in James 4:2-3.

We don’t have because we don’t ask!

And sometimes when we do ask but don’t get what we are asking for it is because we are asking out of wrong motives.  In other words, we are not praying according to the will of God which He has revealed to us in His Word.

Listen, if you want to have answered prayers start finding out what kinds of prayers God loves to answer by digging into His Word.

And when praying for those things which you simply don’t know whether they are God’s will or not—say so!  It is not a lack of faith when you are praying but do not know whether what you are praying for is God’s will to simply admit this and ask God to have His will be done.  That’s what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane right?!  He asked His Father to remove the cup of His wrath from Him but then said—“Not my will but yours be done”.

Now go with me to Nehemiah 1.

Israel is in captivity, God knows that. And the land of Israel and the land of Judah, in particular the southern kingdom and the city of Jerusalem is in ruins and the people are in great distress.  The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, the gates are burned with fire. God knows all that.  In fact, God made sure that happened because God brought the Babylonians to execute His judgment upon Jerusalem and do all this damage in the first place—So God knows all of that.

But look at Nehemiah’s response in verses 4 and 5.

"Now it came about when I heard these words,I sat down and wept and mourned for days.  And I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.  I said I beseech Thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments."

Wow, here's Nehemiah and he believes in the sovereignty of God and knows God will keep His covenant promises and yet he is praying day and night and fasting and weeping too.

And look at how he prays in verse 6. 

"Let Thine ear now be attentive and Thine eyes opened to hear the prayers of Thy servant which I am praying before Thee now, day and night on behalf of the sons of Israel.  I am praying before You day and night, fasting, weeping, mourning, praying before the God of heaven,"

I mean, He's really storming the gates, He's saying, "God, open Your ear and open Your eyes and look at this situation."  I think he is praying far more boldly than we do.  You know, we sort of go into God's presence with this idea that we are bothering God or that God really isn’t too interested in what we have to say.  Maybe, we are too concerned about being disrespectful or maybe too brash.

And I think that God may just be willing to put up with what appears to be disrespectful in our praying just to see some passion and power in our prayers.  I think, if anything, that God finds our prayers far too weak, way too anemic, and unbelievably dull.  We just don't pray for anything worth praying for sometimes.  Listen most of the prayer meetings I go to in church today are just plain boring.  I wonder if God gets weary of our continual organ recitals in which we just inform Him about everyone's body aches and "organ" pains. What a kool thing it would be to go to a prayer meeting where God comes down and acts on behalf of the passionate, powerful, praiseworthy, and pointed prayers of God's people who are praying for God to be glorified by showing Himself strong by doing the impossible.  But that's not going to happen if we keep on praying like we do in the church today.  

And listen, this lack of confidence we have when we pray was not part and parcel of the prayers of those mentioned in the Bible.

Listen to David pray in Psalm 27:7.

“Hear O LORD when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me!”

Check out his prayer in Psalm 55:1.

“Give ear to my prayer, O God.  And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.  Give heed to me and answer me.  I am restless in my complaint and am surely distracted.”

Essentially, what David is praying to God is—“I'm telling you, things aren't going right and You need to listen to me and don't you be going off and hiding somewhere”.

Psalm 102 is another one.

"Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry for help come to Thee. Do not hide Thy face from me in the day of my distress, incline Your ear to me."

Again it's that same sort of demanding, it almost seems rude doesn’t it.

But its not being rude or demanding in a bad sense--it is being confident in the sense that God will act to bring about His sovereign purpose through the confident prayers of His people who really do believe He will act and aren't afraid to remind Him of this.

And I don't know about you but I'd rather be a part of God's means than anything else.  So, I pray knowing God is sovereign and knowing that in my praying God will act and use my prayers in bringing about His plan.  I suppose I could be a spiritual couch potato and not care whether I participated as the means which God uses to reach His end.  But I'd much rather be engaged and involved in being the means because the affect it has on me is wonderful, it is His goodness and blessing in this life and eternal reward in the life to come.

Listen, prayer is not about changing God's mind. It's not about changing God's plans.  It's not about giving Him information He doesn't have. It's not about a tweaking of the circumstances that He might not have anticipated. It's simply about being used by God.  As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:11—it’s about joining together with God in accomplishing His purpose by being the means to His accomplishing His plans in and for and through your life.

Look at Jeremiah 29:12-13, and we'll kind of close with those two verses.

Listen to verse 11.

"For I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare not calamity to give you a future and hope."

There is an affirmation of God's perfect knowledge, perfect sovereignty, and working out His purpose.

But then in verse 12 He says,

"Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you and you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."

In a sense the two seem like they contradict. I know My plans, they're set, they're fixed, they're good.  I'm telling you, come and pray and I'll make you a part of the means of the fulfillment of those plans when you seek Me with all your heart.  And what comes out of this is an experience of the goodness of God. An experience of communion with God.  This is the richness of what we enjoy in this life and in the life to come, the eternal reward for being eager participants in the purposes of God.

Next time you pray, be bold. Next time you pray, which should be at all times, praying without ceasing, be shameless.  Next time you pray, go into the presence of God eager to pour out your heart.  Next time you pray, ask God to listen and to see and not to turn away and to hear the cry of your heart.

And as you pray and God unfolds His purpose, you will be enjoying the experience of having been a part of what He is accomplishing and will accomplish in and through your life through in and through your prayers.

This is just the beginning of why we should pray even though God is sovereign.

Next Sunday we’ll take a look at another reason—the ultimate reason and motivation for prayer and it may blow you away.