Fipi

Hello,

I know that prayer is crucial for developing a relationship with God, but I have a question about prayer requests to God. If God is sovereign and His will is absolute, then why do we request things of God in prayer? If the history of all existence is already determined by God's will, then why should we ask God to do things? It's not as if we can change His will, is it? If I have the wrong idea about God's will, please correct me, but I thought God's will is unaffected by people.
There are a few situations in the Old Testament in which it kind of seems like people changed God's mind about doing something. For example, Abraham asked God to save Sodom on account of ten righteous people living there (Genesis 18:16-33). In that case it doesn't say at all that God changed His mind, but I think there's at least one time when a prophet "turned away God's anger" or something (correct me if I'm wrong please).

Watchman

God granted the sun to stay up 24 hrs while Joshua was fighting.
He relented on Israel when Moses asked him to end the plague
God hears his people, and he states "ask in faith and you will recieve"

All hell is vanquished when the believer bows his knee in importunate supplication. Beloved brethren, let us pray. We cannot all argue, but we can all pray; we cannot all be leaders, but we can all be pleaders; we cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be prevalent in prayer. I would sooner see you eloquent with God than with men. Prayer links us with the Eternal, the Omnipotent, the Infinite, and hence it is our chief resort. . . . Be sure that you are with God, and then you may be sure that God is with you.

-C.H. Spurgeon

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Habakkuk 3:2LORD, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy

Boanerges

Fipi God has a perfect will and and permissible will and that is why He tells us to choose. His way is always best .
An example would be Hezekiah who lay on his deathbed. He called out to God and was given 10 more years to live. This sounds great on the surface but it was during those 10 years that he fathered Manasseh. This would be the king whop led Israel into it's worst idolatry and great destruction. Indeed Hos perfect will was to take Hezekiah home and prayer outside of His will does not bring any good thing.
Does this mean we should not pray? No. God often puts us in situations were we must call on His Name- this is His modus operandi . He uses His body to do His work, spread His Word and build the Kingdom of God. He tells us repeatedly in His holy Word to pray as this is one way we interact with Him and grow in faith. Without faith it is impossible to please Him and He gives us many opportunities to grow in that precious faith.God calls us to seek His face in prayer and then to walk out His will as empowered by the Holy Spirit. If God wants a city taken or a mountain moved He will call upon one of His faithful children to do so in His Name.

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Anything that dims my vision for Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps me in my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult, is wrong for me; and I must, as a Christian turn away from it. – J. Wilbur Chapman

Fluffy

I'm not really sure how it works, but there is a power in prayer. Some people have reported "feeling" the prayers of others that are praying for them. My husband, in particular, knew that he and his crew were being prayed for as they went into the burning refinery to fight the fire. I have heard many people say they could feel the prayers for them.
Prayer heals, protects, provides. It is God's way of allowing us to participate with Him, I suppose.
There is a story of a missionary that went to another town to get badly needed supplies. The way was treacherous with bandits that loved to waylay missionaries carrying medical supplies so that they can sell them. He went to the town, got the supplies and headed back. He made camp because it was late, and went to sleep. In the meantime, a pastor here in the States, was told by God to get up and gather some people together and start praying. They didnt know what it was for, but they prayed. There were 20 men altogether.
The missionary woke up the next day, went to his village and made a safe trip, free from bandits. Later on, a man approached him.
"Hey, mister." He said.
The missionary greeted him.
"Hey, mister," the man repeated, "where are your guards?"
The missionary didnt know what he was talking about. He was alone.
"No, no. We saw your camp and were going to steal your stuff, but you had guards all around you, about 20 of them!"
The missionary assured him again, that he was alone. Then the man knew that God had intervened on behalf of this missionary, and he believed on Jesus.
Later, that missionary went back to the States, and eventually met up with the pastor and the group of men that had prayed. They were amazed that the exact number of angels matched the number of men that had prayed.

There is power in prayer. Why God chose to let us have a part in His plan in this manner is beyond me, but then, His ways are not our ways.

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Be transparent before God, He sees right thru you, anyway!
http://www.likepreciousfaith.org/testimony_val.htm
Please pray for your local emergency responders, daily.

Fipi

Thanks a lot for the replies! Now that I think about it, it was kind of stupid of me to have asked, since I know it tells us to pray in the Bible. But oh well, learned things from your replies, so I guess I'm glad I asked.
Thanks Fluffy, that's an AMAZING story! Today God does miracles just as amazing as the miracles of Jesus in the Bible.

EDIT: I fixed the name mix-up. Sorry Fluffy!

Pastor Gary

Fipi - Just think of prayer as your 'telephone line' to God's office. When you pray, you are 'dialing His number' and he will act upon your prayer requests as He sees fit and on His timetable. While we may grow impatient in waiting for prayers to be answered, God's plan for us may not include what we prayed for in the same way that we made that request. Some things that we ask God for could possibly harm us, so it is through His love and His protection of His Children (us) that makes up His mind in whether or not to grant prayer requests. He is all-wise and knows how things interact in our lives and how things that we pray for may not be in our ultimate best interest in ways that we can not possibly foresee ourselves. Human life is but a fraction of our total existance and while our human time frame here on earth seems to go very slowly at times, God's time frame is eternal and it is His time that counts.

Dusty

I would like to take the credit for that story but it was Fluffy's. I guess our two names get mixed up. So give all the credit to Fluffy.

Thanks Pastor Gary..... excellant answer and God is on the phone line 24/7 waiting for our call.

And Fipi.... no question is ever stupid so don't think that and if we can help that is why we are all here to share and grow together.

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Fipi

Oh, I'm sorry! Grrr, I hate it when I get names mixed up. Sorry Fluffy!
Thank you Pastor Gary. It's often hard to understand why some of our prayers aren't answered, and in those times we must simply trust God and take comfort in the fact that it was God's perfect will.