My prayers don’t change the wise, good, sovereign plan of the King.īut in another sense, prayer really does make things happen. He has planned and ordained history, and he knows precisely what will happen. God isn’t the ultimate project manager, trying to juggle the lives of 7 billion people as they make their choices apart from his sovereign plan. Let’s see, I’ll put this here and this here and…” It’s not like we pray and God says, “Woah, hey now! Didn’t expect that one. Our prayers don’t alter God’s sovereign plan. It was a sure thing, set in stone, absolutely going to happen. He wasn’t hoping that Nebuchadnezzar would invade Israel. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. In Jeremiah 25:11-12 God spoke to Israel through Jeremiah, telling them that they would be exiled to Babylon:
Throughout the Old Testament, God routinely told the people of Israel EXACTLY what would happen. I am God, and there is no other I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’ God knows the future (the word “future” doesn’t really apply to God since he is omnipresent, but you get the point). Scripture is pretty clear that this isn’t the case.
One common heresy (“open theism”) is that God doesn’t know the future and only responds to it like a chess player. God really is sovereign, and he rules the past, the present, and the future.
In one sense, prayer doesn’t change things. To prevent us from drifting into heresy or having our brains explode from exhaustion, let’s look at the Scriptures. Like, does God change his mind? If God responds to prayer, does that mean he alters his sovereign plan in response to our requests? Or is God like the ultimate chess player – a Kasparov on steroids – answering prayers by outsmarting the devil, the universe, fate, karma, or whatever else he has to outsmart? But it also raises some sticky questions.
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