Who Can Say To Him, “What Are You Doing?” No. 3

Stoic Fatalism or Does Prayer Really Influence God?

If the reader has not already read the first two articles in this series, then I would strongly suggest you do so or understanding this one might be difficult. The point I’ve been trying to make in those first two articles is regarding the infinite wisdom and mind of God and that there is simply no way human beings can ever fully comprehend what Jehovah is doing or why He does it. "’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD. "’For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). The finite has no hope of understanding the infinite.  "Who can say to Him, 'What are you doing?'" (Job 9:12).

But that’s not the same thing as fatalism, i.e., that things are going to happen the way they are going to happen and there is nothing we humans can do about it. I’ve had people say to me, “Well, if God is going to do what He wants to anyway, then why bother praying?” Imagine the following dialogue:

Satan: So, Mark, you want God to get rid of your depression, right?

Mark: Yes, of course, I do.

Satan: And you’ve prayed about it, but it hasn’t gone away yet, has it?

Mark: Well, no, but God works in His own time.

Satan: But if God works in His own time, and in His own way, when and where He wants to, then why are you bothering praying about it?

Hmmm. Satan sure is a sneaky devil, isn’t he.

Now, not understanding God’s ways and times is not the same as Him not being influenced by prayer. But it is a matter that I think does merit some consideration lest some fall into a fatalistic trap described by “Satan” in the dialogue above.

So, why pray? Let me briefly suggest a few reasons and then analyze a few fascinating passages of Scripture on the subject.

1. Why pray? Because the Bible tells us to. Frankly, I could end the article right here. God telling us to do something is sufficient reason to do it, and we don’t need to understand any more than that. The mistake humans too often make is wanting to understand why God commands X, Y, Z. But…isn’t a main purpose of this series to argue that we don’t need to, and certainly won’t always, understand why God does what He does? “Pray without ceasing,” (I Thessalonians 5:17). That’s really the only reason we need. So if you are bored with this article, then you can stop here and you’ve all the explanation you need on why to pray.

But if you are interested, then read on and I shall analyze a little farther.

2. Prayer teaches us dependence on God. Very necessary. Folks, prayer is not an information session for God; we aren’t telling Him something He doesn’t already know. Mark: “God, I sure would like for you to end this depression I’m going through.” God: “Oh, you would? Well, I didn’t know that…” No. Men need to be humble, contrite, and recognize their need for Jehovah to provide certain blessings, especially the most important ones like forgiveness of sins. That doesn’t come without asking, and we won’t ask unless we are humble and recognize our need for forgiveness and other blessings. We humans learn from prayer, not God.

3. Prayer and God’s providence. Ok, God will work in His own time, and do what He knows needs to be done. Sounds fatalistic again. But perhaps prayer is involved in that. Mark: “Well, if God is going to get rid of my depression when He wants to and not when I want Him to, then I’m not even going to bother asking Him.” God: “Mark, if you’d ask Me, I’d get rid of it in three months. Since you aren’t going to ask, I’m not going to get rid of it for three years.” Now, very important. I have absolutely no idea if that is the way God works or not. But I don’t know that He doesn’t work that way, either. He’s told me to pray, and from certain passages of Scripture we can gather that our prayers do influence His actions and decisions. Let’s look at some.

Matthew 7:7-8—“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” The words “ask, seek, and knock” in the original Greek are present tense verbs, meaning continuous action. In other words, Jesus is saying, “Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.” Be persistent in prayer.

This idea, I believe, is taught even better in Luke 18:1-5—“Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: ‘There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, “Get justice for me from my adversary.” And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, “Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.”’” Now the point of this parable is stated in verse one: “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” God is not unjust, like the judge in the parable. What Jesus is trying to teach is, keep asking, be persistent, and eventually you may get what you ask for. I don’t think the idea is we ought to badger and pester God like the widow in the parable; we must always be respectful and reverent of Him. But Jesus does teach not to give up if you don’t get the answer you want the first time you ask. And the obvious import is that God will, somehow, some way, at some time, answer our prayer.

One last point about this parable in Luke 18:  If an unrighteous judge will give justice because he's being badgered and pestered, how much more will a righteous, loving Judge give what is right to those whom He loves when they humbly, reverently petition Him?  But...don't lose heart if the answer doesn't come immediately. 

Now, I love this next one. A real brain teaser. James 5:17-18—“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” What’s going on here? Did Elijah want a drought because he was trying to wreak vengeance on some people he didn’t like in Israel, and God said, “Well, ok, Elijah, if that’s what you want, I’ll give it to you.” Or did God have the drought in mind anyway, and Elijah’s prayer simply harmonized with God’s intentions? Perhaps the best explanation would be Jehovah intending to punish wicked Israel and Elijah's prayer being part of that providential scheme.  But I Kings 17, where the story is found, doesn't say that. I really haven’t the foggiest, although I don’t buy the first suggestion, that we can use prayer for acts of personal retribution; I was being a little facetious when I put it forth. I’m clueless on the mind of God on this one, as far as His rationale goes.  He thought it was a good idea, and it happened. And I can say for sure that there was a correlation between A and B—Elijah’s prayer and the 42 month drought. James 5:16 says, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Exactly what went on in the mind of God in relation to Elijah’s prayer and the drought I know not; but I do know that prayer had some part to play in the matter. But, again, let’s don’t try to figure out exactly what God was thinking. Or why. That will be a failure every time.

One more section of Scripture, and this is one that definitely indicates God can be moved to act in our behalf directly because of prayer. It’s found in I Samuel 1. The passage is too long to directly quote, so let me just sum it up briefly. A godly woman named Hannah was barren and she wanted a child. She prayed to God, asking for a son, and saying that if He would answer her prayer, she would dedicate the child to His service. Verse 19 says, “The Lord remembered her,” and the next year, she bore a son, Samuel. She kept her promise to God, and of course, Samuel became one of the great men of the Bible.

Now, some thoughts. Would God have given Hannah a son—Samuel—had she not prayed about it? The implication is very strong in the text that He would not have, that Samuel was a direct answer to Hannah’s prayer. Well, but if Hannah hadn’t prayed, and thus God could not answer, then Samuel would never have been born. This exceptional godly man would have never graced the people of Israel—and us. What would have happened? I don’t know, of course, the question is moot, but we must realize that God could have raised someone else other than Samuel to do what he did. God is not limited by our prayers, that’s for sure. And if Hannah hadn’t prayed, and Samuel hadn’t been born…well, number one, we would never know it. But two, and more importantly, God could have worked in other ways to accomplish His purposes. In this case, a godly woman prays, God is moved to answer that prayer, and the world is better off because of it. Hannah, as she was praying, had no idea if God would answer her affirmatively or not. But He did. And the same can be said for our prayers. “Ask…seek…knock…” We don’t know how God will answer; we just know He wants us to ask and not lose heart when we don’t get an immediate answer. Believe me, I’ve been asking God to mitigate my depression for a long time. It hasn’t gotten noticeably better yet, but I’m not going to quit asking, either.   At times I'm afraid I am badgering Him...

Sometimes, of course, when we ask for something, the answer is simply “no,” just as when we asked our earthly fathers for things and often were denied. God is—usually--not going to give us something that isn’t good for us; hang on and I’ll explain the “usually” before I finish. I ask God, “Lord, make me a gazillionaire.” Um, probably not. Only the United States government can print that much money; I doubt even God could do it (forgive me, Lord…). So there are limitations to what God will give us and we need to accept the fact that sometimes we might just be asking for something that’s either not good for us, or that God simply doesn’t want us to have. But ask…seek…knock…He told us to do it, so He cannot condemn us for doing so.

The “usually” of the paragraph above? Psalm 106:15, regarding the fickle, ungrateful children of Israel in the wilderness: “And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.” Do watch out what you pray for. You might get it and end up in a huge mess.

I have, obviously, not exhausted the subject of prayer, I’ve simply tried to harmonize it somewhat with the first two articles in this series. No, we don’t know exactly what God is doing or when He intends to do it; but that doesn’t mean we cannot make our requests known to Him (Philippians 4:6) and trust His excellent, loving judgment. “The just shall live by his faith.”


Samson, locusts, Pharaoh, and Joseph coming up in subsequent lessons in this series. Stay tuned.