If God Is Sovereign, Why Pray? - by James Williams

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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The author provides a truly confused explanation of God's sovereignty. His underlying assumption is that if God doesn't control everything He controls nothing. But he doesn't document this. And, he quotes absolutely no Scripture until a snippet of an irrelevant verse at the very end. 

He's going to teach the Bible without quoting it?

Astonishing. 

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Scripture teaches that God is sovereign over all. Nothing happens in all the universe outside of his permission. From the smallest atom to the largest galaxy, all that occurs in his creation does so according to his will (Proverbs 16:33, Lamentations 3:37-39). (The author opens with some assertions about what Scripture teaches, and supplies a couple of curious "proof texts:" 

Pr. 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. 

La. 3:37-39 Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? 39 Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins?

Unfortunately for the author, the Proverbs verse is regarding the casting lots when it is actually God making these decisions. It does not come to bear on God's sovereignty.

The Lamentations passage again does not bolster the author's assertions. The focus here is on the arrogance of man who would command something the Lord has not decreed. This also does not come to bear on God's sovereignty.

Now certainly, God is sovereign. But how God defines His own sovereignty is the thing to be ascertained. The author makes claims based on what he thinks God's sovereignty requires, but he never discusses or explains these underlying assumptions.)

No plan of God’s can be thwarted (Job 42:2). (Again, let's quote: 

Job 42:2 I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.

This is a verse about God's power, not His sovereignty. And God making plans that cannot be thwarted does not mean he plans everything.)

Sometimes people will ask, “If God is sovereign, why should I pray?” If God controls everything, if all of our choices and actions fall within his desired purpose, why should we pray? Whether we pray or not, won’t his will be accomplished? (The author term-switches. Making "sovereignty" equal "God controls everything" is the underlying assumption to be demonstrated, and the author hasn't even discussed this idea.)

There are several ways to answer the question, beginning with God’s command to pray that we must obey. (Yes, of course. But obedience to God's command is a matter apart from the question. If God's sovereignty is as the author believes, then a Christian who is disobedient will have the same outcome.)

Also, since God appoints both the ends and the means, we know that God sovereignly works through our prayers to accomplish his purposes. (But God would still do what He does without us praying. So this doesn't answer the question.)

While both of those answers are true, perhaps the most compelling reason we should pray is BECAUSE of God’s sovereignty. Or, to flip the question around…if God is not sovereign, why would you pray? (No Christian believes that God is not sovereign so the question is nonsense.)

Powerless Helper

It’s pointless to request something from someone who can’t provide. (The author has switched from sovereignty to how powerful God is.)

When you want to take time-off from work, you must ask your boss not your co-worker. Just by looking at the clothes I wear and the car I drive, you’d probably agree it’s a waste of time to ask me for a million dollars.

If God were not sovereign, there would be little reason to pray. (Yes, of course. But this is unrelated to the matter at hand. What the author actually means is "if God is not sovereign in the manner I've described, then He's not sovereign.")

If the course of history is decided by the will of man, then God can only respond to whatever man decides. (The author gets more obtuse. Apparently sovereignty's obverse is impotence. And for some reason this means man is in control, and it makes God powerless. 

But none of this follows.)

He can’t bring about his desired end, and he can’t grant your request unless man “lets” him. (A god who "can't" isn't a god.

The author want there to be only one alternative to his viewpoint, that either God is sovereign exactly the way he described, or He isn't sovereign. From this he derives the idea that if man has legitimate free will, that neuters God and places Him at the mercy of man's will. 

But none of this follows.)

God might know beforehand what’s going to happen, but he can’t change it if man’s free will is sovereign. (Extending his speculation to the point of ridiculousness, now it is man who is sovereign.)

If God must submit to man’s decisions, he may not be able to answer your requests. (Wow. It keeps getting worse. Now he has God submitting to man!)

Praying to a God who isn’t sovereign is like asking me for a million dollars or asking the janitor at your office for a day off. Why ask someone who doesn’t have the power to grant the request? (Apparently the only reason to pray is to ask God for stuff.)

I don’t have a million dollars to give and a non-sovereign God may not be able to answer your prayers. (The author tried his best to explain his view of sovereignty by creating a straw man.)

Mighty to Save

I had a family member who didn’t believe in Christ so I shared the gospel with him as early as high school. He said he didn’t feel he needed to be saved from anything, but I continued to share over the years, sometimes through letters in the mail. But, he had already made up his mind that he didn’t believe. That was his choice. (??? Choice? But the author has previously asserted that God controls everything. Which of course must include peoples' "choices.")

If God is powerless to change a hardened heart, (Hmmm. We find that the author is dropping in an entirely new concept, without explaining or documenting it. He tells us that people make decisions that God has the power to change via changing the heart. 

The author doesn't realize that this must also mean God has the power to choose not change a hardened heart. 

So the author has completely negated his previous assertions. Remember when he wrote, "all that occurs in his creation does so according to his will..."? Now we need to ask, do humans make real choices that God has the power to change or not change according to His own reasons, or are we living our lives in a pretend reality where we falsely think that what we decide is a product of real choice that is important and has consequences?

Which is it?)

then there would be no reason to continue praying once the lost person made his decision. (Sigh. The author thinks he's being clever when he constructs this caricature of God, but in actual fact there is no reason to continue to pray or even pray at all if the author is correct about this.)

If God has provided the opportunity for salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, but people must choose Jesus on their own without any influence from the Holy Spirit (for such influence violates their free will), (Oh, my. Now it has descended to the point that even the Holy Spirit is denied influence, all of this based upon a caricature.)

then why would you pray for them? (That's what non-Calvinists ask about you, sir! The author still has not given reason why he would pray for anything if God controls everything.)

What exactly are you asking God to do for the lost person? If he can’t draw them, woo them, or reveal himself to them, then what can he do? (But. But. But. The author believes that God won't draw them, woo them, or reveal himself to them. He doesn't need to. He controls everything, so man must do what God has ordained.)

He’s already sent Christ, now it’s simply up to the person to choose him. (Having painted his doctrinal dissenters as negating and neutering God, the author will now tell us the right way to think...)

But, if God is sovereign, then the Holy Spirit can draw the lost person to himself. (This is not in dispute.)

He can give him a new heart that desires the things of God and sees the beauty of the gospel and, because his will has been changed, receives Christ. (This is not in dispute.)

If that’s how salvation works, then I have every reason to pray for those who are lost. (This is not in dispute.)

If their only hope of salvation is based on their decision alone, (This is not the converse.)

then God can’t do anything and there is simply no reason to pray…we can just hope they change their own mind before they die. (Or, actually, according to the author's belief we can hope that God changes their mind before they die. Same outcome, right?)

Since God is sovereign, I continued to pray for my lost family member. (Why? If God is sovereign in the manner described by the author, his prayers won't change God's mind. And, if the alternative is as he describes, then God is powerless to save anyway. Thus either way it makes no sense to pray.)

I had hope that prayer was powerful and effective because I knew that God truly had the power to save. (How can prayer be powerful and effective if it changes nothing?)

None Can Stay His Hand

Scripture teaches both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man to pray. Through prayer, our sovereign God answers our requests (Luke 11:9-10), works out his plans (Acts 4:24-31), and gives us joy (John 16:24). God “does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand” (Daniel 4:35).

Because we serve a powerful, gracious God who accomplishes his will and whom nobody can veto or overpower, we have every reason to pray. We pray because God is sovereign.

My name is James Williams and I serve as one of the pastors at FBC Atlanta, TX. I love preaching, writing, reading, growing vegetables, and running. My wife, Jenny, and I have four children and are actively involved in foster care. Read More…