Pathways Press.com

Written by Thomas Tarrants, a contemporary minister and author.

If God is omniscient, doesn’t he know everything we need? And if he is both omnipotent and good, won’t he provide it whether we pray or not? So goes a common line of reasoning about prayer which influences many of us, to our own impoverishment and the detriment of Christ’s kingdom. This reasoning has a certain logic and seems to have some biblical plausibility. Scripture clearly tells us that God is all-knowing… and that the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. However, to infer from these truths that prayer is unnecessary is to overlook the broader teaching of Scripture. The Bible does indeed teach that everything we need for life and godliness is found in God, who is willing and able to give it and knows our need before we ask. But it does not teach that he bestows these riches upon us automatically, as a matter of right… in many instances, we can lay hold of God’s promises only through believing prayer. Prayer and providence then, far from being antithetical, are actually reciprocal. Providence inspires prayer and prayer invokes providence. Here divine sovereignty and human responsibility mysteriously converge in a way we cannot fully explain but which is nonetheless real. By failing to pray, can we forfeit personal blessings which God would otherwise bestow? It does appear that in his sovereignty God has ordained believing prayer as a necessary means for our receiving many of his promises… while some measure of blessing comes to everyone because God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good,” it is only through prayer that we lay hold of many of the riches he promises. Why pray? Because the Sovereign God, who is indeed omniscient, omnipotent, and good, has established prayer as the means by which we receive what he has promised and help fulfill what he has ordained. One can only wonder what blessings we are missing today both in our personal lives and in our churches because of our failure to earnestly pray… Perhaps it is time for us as individuals and congregations to devote ourselves to prayer and to cry out with the Apostles.

Prayer:

Written by Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882), an Anglican cleric and professor of Hebrew. He was a leading figure in the Oxford Movement.

Teach me, O Father, how to ask You silently for Your help moment after moment…If I am uneasy or troubled, enable me, by Your grace, quickly to turn to You. May nothing come between me and You today. May I will, do, and say just what You, my loving and tender Father, would have me will, do, and say. Amen.