Earlier in our study of prayer, I made mention
that our prayer life is intimately related to the providence of God. And, we talked about how it’s God's provisions
that we are praying about and for when we entreat Him in our communication of prayer. But when we look at the doctrine of divine
providence we recognize that God governs the entire universe and all things in and it,
and that He is sovereign over everything that takes place. And as soon as we begin to wrestle with the
sovereignty of God over His creation and really examine the fine points of the doctrine of
providence, one of the first questions we encounters is: "Well if God is sovereign,
and if He ordains everything that comes to pass in some sense, what use is there in praying?" Why should we pray at all? I get that question all the time. And, of course, the simple answer, the easy
answer, which doesn't satisfy too many people is, that God not only ordains the ends of
the universe and of human history, but He also ordains the means to those ends. And, just like He sovereignly has a plan of
salvation that He is unfolding in history, part of the way in which He works out His
plan of redemption is through the preaching of the Word. It’s God who brings the increase to the
preaching of the Word, but He uses that means for His end. And so, therefore, we have a responsibility
in light of divine sovereignty, and in light of His providence to be engaged in preaching. Well, the same thing can be said for prayer. God works in and through the prayers of His
people. And so, it's not that the New Testament says,
"Well, God is sovereign, so you can just go back and put up your heels and take a nap,
and don't be engaged in preaching or in praying or in any activity." On the contrary – it’s because God is
sovereign that we get so excited about the whole role of prayer, because in His sovereignty
He has so designed His plan of salvation as to work through the prayers of His people. And that’s why the Bible again and again
encourages us – not only encourages us, but commands us to be actively involved in
prayer. Well, then the question comes, "Do you mean
then R.C., that prayer changes God's mind?" I get that question a lot. Let's look at that. Does prayer change God's mind? Well, if we ask the question in that manner,
obviously to ask that question is to answer it. The only answer I can give to it is not simply
by saying, "No – prayer doesn't change God's mind." The only real answer I can give to that question
is, "Of course not." What could be further from your imagination
than that your prayer or my prayer would have the power or the influence to change the mind
of the Almighty? Let's just think about that for just two minutes
and you will see that to ask the question is to answer it. Because what would have to happen for God
to change His mind? What kind of a view of God do we have when
we assume that God has worked out a plan, and He has His plan A? And He’s about to implement this plan that
grows out of His perfect knowledge of His absolute wisdom and His total righteousness
and integrity. So He’s utterly incapable of having an evil
design, and He’s incapable of having a foolish plan, isn't he? And so, He has His plan A and He is going
to implement it, and then all of a sudden, something He hasn't anticipated takes place
– you begin to pray. And you say, "Well, God could you please change
this plan a little bit. I would prefer that you do it a different
way. Have you considered this, and have you considered
that?" And suddenly you’re God's guidance counselor. And you get Him to change His mind because
you persuade Him that His first plan was not a good one. Or, you give Him information that He lacked
before you talked to Him. Now, think about it, what kind of a God do
you have if you think that you have to inform Him of the details of what is going on down
here. Now, the Scriptures tell us that the Lord
knows what you need before you ask of it. And what's the conclusion? Therefore you don't need to bother to ask? Isn't that amazing? That the Father who knows everything about
you – He knows every hair on your head, He knows every thought in your mind, every
word that is going to – before it’s even formed on your lips, He knows what you’re
going to say before you say it. There’s nowhere that you can escape from
His presence. He knows you inside and out. He knows what you need, but He still says,
"Come and tell me what you need." Now, beloved, when He does that, that is not
for His benefit. It is not for His education. And it’s not for His edification. Who is it for? The answer is obvious isn't it? When He asks us to come and tell Him what
our concerns are and our needs, He’s inviting us in to the sacred presence of the Almighty
in heaven itself, and to say, "Come and talk to me." For our benefit. Because we walk away from that communication,
from that experience of speaking our needs and our concerns before the Lord encouraged
and at peace because we have been with Him in that discourse. But, let's not flatter ourselves to the place
where we think that our wisdom is greater than His wisdom, or that our knowledge is
such that we can give Him information that He didn't previously have. Well, again, when I give that kind of an answer
to people, to the question, "Does prayer change God's mind?" When I say, "No, it doesn't change God's mind,
because God's mind knew what you were going to pray before you prayed it. And that knowledge was factored into His plan
all along." Well, then you say, “Again, that sounds
like it is all programmed, and there’s no reason to pray." Well, let's ask the question another way. Not "Does prayer change the mind of God?”
but, “Does prayer change things?" Does prayer have any impact on what actually
comes to pass? And, the answer to that Biblically is yes. And not just a simple yes, but a "By all means." Let's take a moment to look at James' teaching
on this subject in the fifth chapter of his book, beginning in verse 13 – we read these
words: “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing songs. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church,
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick,
and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another and
pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous
man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it didn't rain on the land for three years
and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain
and the earth produced its fruit." Now, first of all, you have to understand
something about the kind of literature that I just read from this book. James, the book of James is called the only
book that fits the genre or the literary category of wisdom-literature in the Old Testament. It’s very Hebrew in its orientation. You don't get long abstract developed arguments
in James. Rather, you get for the most part aphorisms
– short, pithy statement that incorporate truths that are given without all the detailed
qualifications that you might find in the didactic literature, for example in the style
of the Apostle Paul. So you have to be careful when you read this. Because, some read it and say, "Well, wait
a minute, he says the prayer of faith will save the sick. The Lord will raise him up" – as if this
were an absolute promise to every inquiry. We know in the New Testament that there were
the prayers of the saints to which God said, "No." For example, by inference, let's take a look
at what happened when Peter was thrown into prison, and the disciples gathered together
to pray fervently for Peter's rescue. Remember that event? And as they were praying there’s a knock
at the door. Somebody goes to the door and opens the door
and sees Peter standing there – and what happens? He closes the door in his face! He says, "Peter's ghost is out there." I mean, God answers the prayer and when the
answer to prayer is right before their eyes, they still don't believe it. But, there is where we see how the early church
prayed for the release of Peter and God answered them. But, the same narrative tells us about the
martyrdom of James. Are we to believe that the church – that
the early leaders of the church didn't pray for James? We're told about in Paul's epistles of those
who had been sick and had not been healed. Even Paul talked about how he had prayed several
times for relief from the thorn in the flesh – whatever that was – and God's response
to the apostle was what? "My grace is sufficient for you." You see sometimes God says, ‘No’ even
when we are sick. But, at the same time, what James is encouraging
is, he’s saying, "Hey, we understand, that’s a given that God doesn't always say ‘yes.’ But don't miss out on the opportunity. Pray for the sick. Pray for those who suffer because God does
answer those prayers. God does heal the sick. He does relieve our suffering." But it’s not cast as an absolute guarantee. If that were the case – I mean, keep in
mind that every Christian who lived in this world before (let's say just to be on the
safe side) 1880, has died because Christians die – not just unbelievers but Christians
die. And, when Christians get sick, there’re
always Christians that pray for Christians that get sick. And at some point the Christians die. And that was true of every apostle in the
New Testament. There is no absolute guarantee that Christians
are going to escape suffering, pain and disease. We know that. But nevertheless we still are to be encouraged
because there’s a massive impact from that prayer that God does at times heal people
and restore them and also alleviates their suffering. Sometimes He says ‘yes.’ Sometimes he says ‘no.’ Now, one of the things that’s really misappropriated
from this text is that James said it’s the prayer of faith that will save the sick." And so, we’ve had a whole theology emerge
in the popular culture associated with so-called faith healing. So that, if you are not rescued from your
malady and delivered from your disease, then obviously the problem is, you didn't have
the faith. And if you have true faith, you’ll never
be sick. You’ll always be cured and so on. God always wills healing. You hear that kind of theology. You just have to ‘name it and claim it,’
and so on. This is such a gross distortion of the total
picture of what prayer is supposed to be and do in the Bible. I’ve had people tell me that if you pray
for somebody and you say, "If it be thy will O Lord, please raise this person up," that
that is a sin. It’s an affront against God to say, "If
it is God's will," because God always wills that. I say wait a minute – if it is a lack of
faith to say, "If it be thy will" what does that say about the posture of Christ's prayer
in the garden of Gethsemane. The greatest teacher we have on how to pray
is Christ Himself. And when He was faced with His great passion,
His ultimate suffering, that none of us can imagine what it was like to have the cup of
God's wrath set before Him. We can't imagine that. And He, in agony, sweating beads of blood,
is on His face before God in the garden of Gethsemane, and He says "Oh Lord, if it be
Thy will, let this cup pass from me." Was that an act of unbelief on Jesus part? By no means. And He hastened to add, "Nevertheless, not
my will, but your will be done." Which is also mentioned by James, those two
little words, "Deo volente." Don't say that you're going to do something
next week or next month or next year without saying at the same time, Deo volente. God willing I will see you next week. God may not be willing. God may take me between now and then. Or God may put me on my back and incapacitate
me so that the plans that I have prepared for next week will not come to pass, because
God doesn't will. You see, faithful prayer, true faith – what
faith is in its essence is trust. And, the prayer of faith is a prayer that
trusts God for the outcome, even if He says, ‘no.’ That’s what Jesus teaches us in Gethsemane. "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." So that if you want me to take that cup, I'm
going to trust you while I'm drinking the cup. That's the posture of Job – "Though He slay
me, yet will I trust Him." And so, again, we go back to the principle,
the premise that I’ve been repeating – that when we pray, remember who it is we’re talking
to. Remember who it is whose will is sovereign. And God's will does not always agree with
my will. And aren't you glad? Because, if it did that would make me God. And I guarantee you, I would be an extremely
poor substitute for the one who already holds that position. Alright. So saying "If it be Thy will" is not an act
of unbelief. It is an act of trust – trusting in God
and in His will. Nevertheless, having said all of that, again,
James will not allow us to retreat into fatalism, where we just say, "Que será, será” – what
will be will be, and I don't have to be engaged in serious prayers." But he goes on to say the "fervent effectual
prayer of a righteous man avails” – what? Everything? No, but it avails much. And that answers the question, "Does prayer
change things?" Yes, a whole lot of things. Does it avail for anything? Yes, it avails much. But again he doesn't say the cavalier, casual,
insipid prayer of an unrighteous person avails much. It’s the fervent prayer that avails, and
the fervent prayer of a righteous person, a righteous person relatively speaking. So what about fervency? Well, it's not that we have a Richter scale
that measures the emotional intensity of every prayer. But, fervency means praying with some degree
of passion. And that passion should be in proportionate
relationship to the severity of the need and the seriousness of the thing. It's not that we just scream and yell and
carry on in church on Sunday morning so that we can exhibit passion over who’s going
to win the football game that afternoon. Passionate prayer should be fitting serious
and severe needs. Now, we see another commentary on the significance
of the fervency of prayer in the parable of the unjust judge, or sometimes called the
parable of the importunate widow. You remember the story. Jesus says there was a judge in a certain
city who regarded neither God nor man. And there was this poor woman who had been
wronged and she came to the gate seeking justice, but the judge had no time for her. He was too busy. He didn't want to be bothered with her. But she kept knocking at his door. She kept asking to be heard. She persisted in her prayer until finally
he couldn't stand it anymore, and just to get her off his back – to get rid of this
pest, he heard her case and delivered her. And what does Jesus say? What’s the point of the parable? Jesus doesn't say, OK, just like this woman
pestered this corrupt judge until she finally got what she wanted, so you have to pester
the unjust judge who rules heaven and earth until you can finally get a hearing. That’s not His point. His point is this: if even corrupt judges
in this world from time to time will hear somebody's prayer, how much more will the
true judge of heaven and earth who has no corruption in Him at all, hear your prayers. And he asks the rhetorical question, "Will
not God vindicate His elect who cry out to Him day and night?" Again Jesus is talking about the efficacy
of prayer. In fact, at the beginning we are told, "and
Jesus taught them a parable to the end” – what? – “that men ought always to
pray and not faint." That was the point of this parable. That’s the point of this series that we
want to emphasize what Jesus taught in that parable. That we ought always to pray and not faint. And if we feel from time to time on the edge
of fainting, if we feel like we’re about to give up, chances are we have been lax in
our prayer. Because, there is a corollary between prayer
and courage – prayer and hope. So, the next time you are thinking of fainting,
remember that the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous person avails much. And, it is a mandate, but again it is one
of the greatest privileges that God has given His people that we can come to Him where no
one else cares and nobody else wants to listen, He cares and He will listen.
