The Mystery of Prayer = Alistair Begg

Promise for Today - Day 7 of 10 sharing The Christian's Armor devotional by Alistair Begg. Today's devotional is titled, The Mystery of Prayer.
***************

Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Ephesians 6:18

If God has already determined what He is going to do, why bother to pray? What possible difference can prayer make? Can we change God’s mind in our prayers? Nearly all of us will have voiced or at least given thought to questions like these. We think like finite creatures, and we naturally project our own perception of reality onto God. Even the Bible regularly personifies God in human categories. But though the Bible itself sometimes portrays God in ways that represent Him with human characteristics—as if He were changeable, for instance (1 Samuel 15:10-11, 35)—the full testimony of Scripture causes us to conclude that God does not change His mind.

James puts it plainly for us: in God “there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). And the Old Testament agrees with the New: “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19). When it appears that God changes His mind, then, it is in actual fact circumstances or human behavior that has changed, and God is responding differently than He had done but still entirely consistently with His character. So, if God never changes His mind and yet He repeatedly calls His people to pray, then we are led to this conclusion: in His sovereignty, God has ordained both the ends and the means to those ends, and we will not reach God’s intended ends without His foreordained means. (If that sounds like a mystery, that’s because it is!)

Think of God’s eternal ends as found in Revelation 7:9-10: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” Now, is God simply going to bring that innumerable company before His throne, irrespective of anything anyone says or does? No! Otherwise, why would Jesus have said to His followers, “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38)? In God’s plans, the prayers of His people are the means by which He raises up servants who herald His word. And men and women receiving the word of God from those heralds (Romans 10:17) are the God-appointed means for fulfilling His purpose from all eternity: to have a people that are His very own.

Ultimately, how the sovereign God uses the prayers of His people in His plans remains a mystery. We won’t have all the answers to all our questions about prayer, at least not for now. And that’s okay because we can be confident that God ordains means such as prayer for His eternal purposes. And knowing that is enough to bring us to our knees so that we might enjoy the privilege of knowing in all eternity that our prayers were used as part of His sovereign purposes to save His people.

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT

 
How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Lent - Day Twenty-Eight - God Meant it for Good

Lent Devotions from Concordia University 2024 

56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That He will not come to the feast at all?” 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest Him.

John 11:56-57

“It is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” Little did Caiaphas know how these words indicated God’s work that was to come. Jesus died: the One for the many. The Apostle Paul speaks similarly (Romans 5) when he describes how sin came into the world, and to all people, through the disobedience of one man (Adam). But he goes on to describe how, by God’s gracious will, the righteousness of One (Jesus) who was sent to the cross leads to justification and life for all. God brings about his good work for our well-being, even in the midst of those who plot for the death of Jesus. This not only reminds us of the salvation secured for us by God’s mercy, but also of the mystery of God’s good and gracious work.

I can’t help but think of the Old Testament account of Joseph and his brothers. Out of their jealousy and anger, they sold Joseph into slavery. That led to a number of trials Joseph had to endure, including years of unjust imprisonment. Through those trials, God brought Joseph into the house of Pharaoh and to a high position within the government. This gave Joseph the ability to help his brothers when they came seeking food during a famine and to save his entire family. Joseph describes all this by saying, You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive (Genesis 50:20). We may not always be clear as to what hidden work God is doing in the midst of our lives. Nevertheless, time after time, God’s word directs us to see that he is good and gracious. He has Christ for all, and works things for our good, even if in the most hidden of ways.

Prayer: 

Almighty God, 

                       Thank You for Your salvation given to me because of Jesus. May it always remind me that You work things out for my good. Strengthen my faith during times when Your gracious activity seems more hidden than I would like. Amen.

Reading Further - John 11:45-57

45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

54 Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.

55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?” 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.