Pastor Al Q&A - Prayer

If God already knows the future, and knows what's going to happen, and it won't change, then why do we pray for stuff? How does prayer work?

I don't know who wrote that question, but it was a good question. And I'm going to have to give you a little background to start with because this is a dangerous question. It's dangerous because it's real easy when you're talking about this sort of thing to slip into kind of a questioning, critical mode. I'm not saying the person that wrote this question is doing that, but it's real easy to do that. "If God is like this, how come I have to do this?" It's that kind of attitude. And I want to start with first talking about just who God is and what He's like. If we're gonna understand Him, we need to have an understanding of what we're examining.

God is infinite in every way. He's infinitely wise. He's infinitely strong. He's infinitely knowledgeable, infinitely powerful, infinitely holy. His love is infinite. His wrath is infinite. Everything about Him is not just big; it's infinite. And we are not, are we? We are small. We are finite. So one of the first things you have to understand when you're thinking about God and you're asking questions like these is that you will never in all eternity fully comprehend who God is and what He's like. We just have to get used to that, because He's infinite and we're finite. The only alternative is to have a finite God that we can actually get our hands around and fully understand, and that is not God at all.

So when we first start talking about God, we're talking about someone who is beyond our comprehension. So, he's not like if you go to science class and you take a rock and you can look at it under a microscope and you can turn it around and you can put acid on it an all these kinds of things and you can test it and see what it's like and all that kind of stuff and figure out what kind of rock this is and learn all you can about that rock. That's not the way God is because God is this supreme infinite being.

You don’t do that to a mighty king. When you come into his presence, you fall down in front of him, and you wait quietly for him to speak to you. Now if you do that with an earthly king, you do that much more with an infinite King, God himself. And so when we ask these kinds of questions, we have to come with a certain attitude about God. One recognizes that He is beyond our comprehension and greatness and supremacy, and we need to be quiet and humble and respectful and submissive if we're gonna learn anything about Him in truth. And so that's just a question of how do we approach this kind of question.

I want to talk a little bit about what God is like and how He's different than us, because we're gonna have to understand that if we’re gonna understand these kinds of questions. And one of them is that God is eternal, and we are not. You're all students, and one of the things that's characteristic of students is you're learners (even though sometimes you don't want to be learners). How many years you been in school so far? What do you do through all that time? Your entire life, from the time you're born, you learn. In fact, we come into life knowing absolutely nothing, right? Everything you know now, you've learned since you were born. And you aren't even half done yet. We still keep learning our entire lives. (In fact, as you get older, you start forgetting more than you're learning, and then you kind of loose ground a little bit.)

Secondly, everything about us seeks satisfaction from stuff outside of us. Things we own, people we relate to, experiences we have, things we've learned, all that kind of stuff is what we seek to find some purpose or meaning in life. And part of that is even in God himself. We're looking for something outside of ourselves to fulfill ourselves.

God is not like that at all. God has never learned anything, because He knows everything. He is infinitely knowledgeable. He learns nothing. He already knows it all. God is not looking for something outside of Himself to satisfy Himself because he is infinitely supreme and fully, completely satisfied with Himself. There is nothing comparable to Him, not only nothing greater, there is nothing that approaches Him, that could satisfy Him or add to Him. He is complete and final in Himself, and He doesn't need anything, He doesn't want anything, because He is the source of everything. There's nothing outside that contributes to Him; He is the source of everything that is, including us. So you see, He's a lot different than we are. In fact, God doesn't need a relationship with you at all. He's been eternally happy in His relationship with Himself, and with His Son, and with the Spirit, two other persons who are infinitely great. He is infinitely happy in relationship with them. So He's totally content.

So, why does He want a relationship with you? His relationship with you is not so that you can contribute something to Him, or do something for him. His relationship with you is so that He can have an overflow of His greatness into your life. It's really a fact that God doesn’t want you to do anything for Him. In fact, he wants to pour Himself out into your life, and show you how great and awesome and majestic and wonderful and He is.

So, I want you to just think about that for a minute, what kind of person this is we're talking about. We're trying to learn about Him. We have to do so with a certain kind of attitude and respect and understanding Who it is we're taking about. This is a supreme God. So we ask a question: if God already knows the future and knows what's going to happen, and it won't change, then why do we pray for stuff. We need to be real careful how we ask that question, of this supreme Person. Now lets get down to what it is that's really behind this question. It's an honest question, isn't it? Do you believe that God is sovereign over everything in all the world and all the universe, everything that He has made and all that exists, that He is in control of everything? The Bible says that. God works everything according to the counsel of His own will. That is, He does as He pleases. And in everything that He does, He does exactly as He wants. And nothing can restrict Him or restrain Him.

The problem that we have when understanding God and the future, is really a problem of our finite experience. You know what "fate" is? "Fate" is that concept that the future is fixed, and nothing can change it. And so our purpose is simply to live out our lives and see what fate brings. And whatever happens to you is gonna happen to you. Maybe you're gonna get hit by a truck three years from now, standing around the corner, and there's not a thing in the world that you can do about it. If that's fate, that's what's gonna happen. And so you just wait and see. That is an idea of the future, that the future is fixed, and nothing can change it. And whatever you do, whatever you think, whatever you say, whatever you experience is gonna happen and that's it.

Now, a lot of people confuse God's sovereignty with fate, and they do it this way. God looks ahead and sees what's going to happen. That means that that future then is fixed, isn't it? If God knows exactly what's gonna happen, that's the only thing that can happen. And so the future is fixed, and that's exactly like fate.

Now, I think that's a misunderstanding of God and the future. And here's the problem. Lots of times we think about life kind of like a time line So I can say back there, that wall is the past, and that wall is the future, and I'm somewhere on this timeline in the middle. And so you can look back and see when I was born, and you can see when Jesus lived, and you can see way back there where Abraham lived, and if you look far enough you can see all the way back to creation. And if you look out here in the future you can see stuff that's gonna happen in the future. You're gonna see stuff that's gonna happen to me tomorrow, and you can see what's gonna happen to me in twenty years from now, if I live that long. You can see what's gonna happen in the year 2116. And so we have this sequence of time. Of course we can't see into the future, but we can see into the past. And so as we look into the future, we say, "What's up here?" And we think that God looks "up there" and sees what's going to happen. And therefore that fixes in time what's going to happen in the future.

That's not the way God is at all. What did God tell Moses His name was? "I AM." What does that mean? Why did he say that? What did he mean by that? He always is, which means what about Him? He is timeless. What did Jesus say? He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." Now that doesn't make any sense at all, cause Abraham lived 2,000 years before Christ. "Before He was, I AM means that God is not subject to time. Time is a creation of his. We are subject to time. Now, can you imagine living apart from time? I can't. It doesn't work. My mind doesn’t work that way. That's because I'm a creature of time. I live in time. I have to live in time. God does not. He's outside of time.

So let's just imagine here for a minute, the sequence of things happening, and we have this line that stretches out there, that really what God is looking at is looking at is kind of like a circle, that everything is happening right now. From His perspective, Abraham is walking, Jesus is alive, you are born, the year 2115 is right now. Everything is now, right now. Because He is outside of time, He's looking at all of it in an instant. He sees it all the same. For Him there is no difference in understanding an experience of the past, the present, or the future. Everything is present.

Now how does that change Him, how we view Him? Well, instead of the future being fixed, the future is now. Now, does that mean that the future is fixed, if it's now. Is your "present" fixed? No. In fact, you can choose to listen to me right now. You can choose to go to asleep. You can choose to get up and walk out. You can do a lot of things right now, because you have options, right in front of you, right? What you need to do is try to imagine, that for God, always, everything, is now.

So we say, "God knows what's gonna happen in the future. How does He know that?" Because He sees it as now. He's outside of time. It's happening right now. So, what you'll be doing, twenty years from now, from His perspective, you're doing right now. Now, that's kind of a mind twister, isn't it? Does that twist your mind? It does mine. But that's what it means that I AM. God says I AM. Not that "I was" not that "I will be," but I AM. I'm outside of time.

Now, how does that affect this question? If God already knows the future… (And we can understand that if God knows what's gonna happen in the future, as happening right now.) We might say that, "If God knows what's happening right now, why should we pray to Him?" Does that make sense to pray to God right now about something happening in your life right now? Well sure it does. And for Him, the future is no different than the present. That it's no more fixed. It's just, He sees it as it happens, all at once. So, that answers one question: the future is therefore not fatalistically set. It unfolds in a relationship with God, as you experience it as a reality of now. And you can relate to God, right now. You can relate to Him about the future in the same way.

Now, here's the question: What does prayer do? One of the other questions was, if God is sovereign over everything, then why should we pray, what does it accomplish. Are we going to change God's mind? Do you think that God knows what you're going to pray before you pray it? How does he know that? Do you think He knows what you're going to think before you think it? How does He know it? Because everything is now. Do you think He knows what you're thinking right now? Yes, of course He does. And He'll know what you're thinking five minutes from now, because for Him, that's right now. He's outside of time. He knows what you're going to pray about before you do. He knows what you're going to experience before you do. He is way ahead of you.

So, are you going to surprise God with your prayers? Are you thinking you're going to add any advice to Him? Do you ever try to advise God with your prayers? "You know Lord, if You would just do things this way, it would work out real well, you know. If it went like this, you know, then I think this would be a good way for things to turn out, you know." God is infinitely wise, infinitely knowledgeable. He knows everything. Does He need your advice? Or do you think He might be missing something? "Lord, I don't think you know about my friend, who doesn't know Christ yet. Let me tell you about him, so that you can go to work on his life, cause you may have overlooked him." You think that's the case? No. You're not gonna inform God. You're not gonna surprise God. You're not gonna convince God. He already knows all about all that before we ever pray, so why should we pray? In fact, He has a perfect understanding of the way things should be. Do you want Him to do something different than that? What is the purpose of prayer then? So, we look out here in the future, and we say the future is unknown to us but known to God. He knows our thoughts. He knows our needs. He knows everything wisely. Why not just say, "Well God, it's up to You. Whatever You do is fine with me. I don't know anything, so why pray at all?" Does the Bible tell us to pray? Yes. Why?

Well, that's part of the amazing part of what God is like. Now, I told you at the beginning here… (I'm not taking time to defend this from the word; you'll have to discover this for yourself.) that God is here, not so much to get us to do something for Him, as to have an overflow of His greatness and His blessing and His majesty and His goodness and His love and His care coming out of His life, into your life, to bless you in a relationship with Him. To understand that, you have to understand that God is supremely, amazingly, beyond your imagination, wonderful and great. Therefore to know Him is the supreme experience. We don’t know Him much; that's why we don’t think it's that great of an experience. But when we know Him as He is, it is going to be infinitely greater than anything else. And God's purpose is to say, "I want to share My life with you, and show you how wonderful I am, and let you experience Me." It's not to get you to do something for Him.

So, what is God's purpose then, in saving us and asking us to pray? One of the key facts of Scripture is that God's ultimate purpose is this in your life. Not to get you to do something for Him, but to get you to have the experience of doing something with Him. That is, he wants you to be a participant in what He's doing. He gives you the privilege of being in a relationship with Him, where you get to be a part of what He is doing. Now, does He need you to be a part of what He's doing? "God is saying, 'I only got two hands; I need a few more. Why don’t you guys come along and help me?'" You think that's the case? No, because He's infinitely powerful. He can do anything. He created everything that is. He doesn’t need our help.

But, He's willing, not only for us to help Him, but actually to join in His life. He's willing to share His very life with us. Now think what that means, that God almighty is willing to come into your life and share His life with you so that you can experience and be a part of His life. That's what Jesus said, when He was praying in John 17 he said, "Father I pray that they might be one even as I am in You and You are in Me, that they might be one in Us." That is, that we might have the same kind of experience with God, the same kind of sharing and relationship with Him, that the Son and the Spirit and the Father have together, that you are invited to join into that experience, and God is willing to share His own personal life with you. That's what it means to accept Jesus Christ into your life, is to have the life of God actually come into your life and join with you so that you can experience the life of God in your own life. And one of the outcomes of that is that God is willing to share with you, not just Who He is, but what He's doing.

Now, how do we contribute to what He's doing? It's not so much that we go out and say, "Well, You do that part, and I'll do this part." That's not what God has in mind. What God has in mind, is that you would experience His working, and join in that working as a continuous partnership, where He supplies all the wisdom, all the strength, all the knowledge. He supplies everything, but you get a real part to play in participating with Him in what He's doing. And the most fundamental, significant thing that we can do to participate in what God is doing is by praying, because God has chosen to do the things He's doing in conjunction with people, with His people. He wants to express Himself through us for delight and His glory. And so He's chosen, "I don't need to do this with you, but I'm willing for you to be a part of My life, and for you to be a part of what I'm doing, and for you to have a significant role in that. And the role I'm giving you is prayer.

Now, why does He give us the role of prayer to do our part of the work? Any ideas? What does prayer accomplish? If God doesn't answer, if He doesn't act, if He doesn't do anything, what does prayer accomplish? Nothing. It is the silliest, most ridiculous, stupid thing to do, to stand in a room, and open your mouth and say stuff and speak to nothing, and nothing happens. That is absolutely futile and ridiculous, isn't it? And that's exactly what you get if God's not there, and He doesn't show up, and He doesn’t do anything, we're idiots. Prayer doesn’t accomplish a thing. But if we're in relationship with God, what does prayer accomplish? Whatever He wants. God can do anything. The key factor about prayer is that prayer pleases God because I'm expressing absolute, total dependence on Him, in my participation in His work. And that gives Him all the glory, and all the credit, but gives me a real part to play.

That's why God doesn't work if we don’t pray. He can; of course, He does whatever He wants, whether His people pray or not, but He won't work in your life and He won't work the way He wants to work in you unless you are working with Him. How? Not by doing something, but by relying on Him to do something, and therefore you have to have a partnership with God if prayer is going to accomplish anything, isn't it? We're not praying so that we can inform God or change His mind, or get Him to do something that He doesn't want to do, or has forgotten to do or overlooked. We're praying to join God in what He is doing.

That's why we pray for our friends, that God would do something in their lives. Because we have a role to play in their lives by joining God in His work, by utterly, absolutely depending upon Him and His power, and His ability to accomplish something and that delights Him. And He says, "Man, I love it when you do that." Someone described prayer as like, in fact the Scripture does this, it describes this as like incense, an aroma that goes up to God, and the description goes like this:

How many of you have ever been in the summertime, out in your backyard in the people down the block two houses are grilling steaks. And the breeze is kind of coming your way. Have you ever had that experience? Maybe some of you guys would be more enthusiastic about this. And you're kind of hungry, and, "Mom, what's for lunch?" "Uh, well, we're gonna have cheese sandwiches." And I'm sitting here; I'm smelling steak. And uh, it kind of makes your mouth water; you know, it kind of makes you hungry, doesn't it. You ever had that experience? Prayer is like that to God. It's something that He savors, that He delights in, that entices Him to do something, to accomplish something. It's a joy to Him, a pleasure to Him when his people join Him, dependently in His work, praying in faith, that He will accomplish something that will honor Him and bless people. God says, "Mmm, I love that coming up from my people to me. I love that response. It raises my appetite." And the food of God is the work He does to glorify Himself in the world. That's what satisfies His life, is expressing Himself in all that He does. And our prayers have the capacity for joining with Him and pleasing Him and kind of raising His appetite for action.

Now, God is not dependent on our prayers, but He delights in them, because He takes someone like you, you scrawny, worthless, scroungy, sinful, weak, useless being, and He transforms your life through Christ, and makes you something incredibly wonderful, and then He says, "Come on, come join me. I have a supreme, sovereign, infinite, fantastic, wonderful thing to accomplish, you want to help? Great! Then your part is to ask and depend and to trust and to express your heart, and My part is to do it. And we'll work together. Is that a deal?" And God says, "I love that. I love to take somebody and change them into my image and have them join in my work, as a gift of my grace and do stupendous things through their lives." That's what delights the heart of God.

Now, I don't know how you think about yourselves right now. How many of you think you're capable of doing some great and fantastic and amazing thing? Some of you may have some ambitions of those things, and you're going to be sorely disappointed. You know why I say that? Because Solomon was a great, great man. At the end of his life and all his accomplishment he says it's all absolutely useless and worthless. Everything I've done adds up to a big zero. Do you think you're going to do more than Solomon did? No. God is the only one capable of something of eternal significance in life, something stupendous and wonderful and amazing and glorious for all eternity.

And he says, "I'm going to take you, you absolutely, totally inept people, because of our weakness and our sin, and I'm going to fill you with myself, and give you a real part to play in what I'm doing. Your part is to trust and ask. My part is to act." Prayer accomplishes something fantastic; it unleashes the power of God, and His delight to fantastic things in our lives. If God knows about what's going to happen in the future, and that's what's gonna happen, then why should we pray? Partly because the future is now, for God, and He is soliciting and asking for you to join Him in what He wants to do right now. Maybe right now is two days from now. Maybe it's ten years from now. But He's soliciting you and saying, "Participate with Me. Work with Me. You don't contribute anything. You don't bring resources; you don't bring wisdom. You don't bring power." What you bring is a partnership with Him where you say "I trust You! This is what you’ve laid out as what Your desires and your will for man and for life is and I'm gonna pray out of my heart in relationship with You, and ask You to do that in this situation." And God says, "YEAH! That’s what I like. I like for My people to trust Me and ask Me and partner with Me in amazing things." We don’t always ask the right stuff. We don't know what we're doing half the time. God doesn't always say, "Yeah, I'm gonna do exactly what you ask." But I think God is more delighted in us asking, even if it ends up being not exactly the wisest prayer. Because we're asking in relationship with Him, He'll correct that. He might even turn our prayer into something a lot better than we can imagine. But He delights in us in relationship with Him. That's why He's calling you to Himself in Christ. That's why He's given you His Son. That's His eternal purpose for you, to partner with Him in life.

How many of you looking forward to getting married? Nobody? You guys have a dim view of marriage, man. It's great! I love it. You should look forward to it. What do you do when you get married? Partner. You partner with somebody for a lifetime, like Dave and Mary. They're stuck together. Sometimes prickly ways, but they are one, they're connected. They work together, they live together, they're a partnership. And that's a beautiful, wonderful thing. It's very fulfilling, exciting, it's challenging at times, all that. That's what God's offering you. Would you rather be married to Dave or God? Frankly, I'd rather be married to God. God is offering you the opportunity to spend your life with Him, to have a relationship with Him that is more intimate and more significant and more powerful and more fulfilling and more lasting than anything that Dave and Mary will ever have in their lives. In fact, their lives together are simply an illustration, a picture of that greater experience that we can have with God, and that they have with God already.

That's what He's calling us to do in prayer, is an expression of that relationship together with Him. And He's inviting you to do something significant with your life, and that's why He says be devoted to prayer. That is, make it the highest priority in your life, because it's the most significant thing you will ever do. It's joining God in His sovereign work. It's an amazing thing, that a sovereign God would let me have a real part to play in His sovereign work. And that's what prayer is.