Return to Question and Answers Page

Thanks for the email. Great questions. I'll do my best to answer you simply and succinctly. Feel free to ask me to expand on anything, though.

After the conference last weekend and just reading [a missionary's] e-mail on answered prayer requests, I wanted to get your thoughts on how the process works.

RC was very specific, it is absurd to think that the words of man should change the mind of God Almighty, as if to say that maybe He missed something that we caught and pointed out to Him.

Right. As ridiculous as that sounds, unfortunately, some actually believe we do change His mind in that absurd sense.

In my mind, I've always thought of praying for missionaries (and just regular prayer requests in general) as part of our conforming our wills to His.

This is right too. While prayer, which is communication with God (not only asking, asking, asking but also loving, praising, inquiring, encouraging, adoring, submitting, acknowledging, etc), does afford us many benefits, I do believe that the conforming our wills to His so HIS will be done, ranks right at the top.

But how does that reconcile with [the missionary's] comments (i.e. God answered our prayer for an apartment just this week...thanks to those who had been praying for this, etc.).

This is in line with, "Ask and you shall receive (in as much as your prayers align with God's perfect will - God is so good that He doesn't want to give you what you want sometimes when He knows full well that doing that would be less than the best for you. He only gives us His BEST); seek and you shall find."

[The missionary's] prayer for an apartment isn't an appeal to change God's mind or to alert God that he needs an apartment but, rather, an acknowledgement that 1) God is the supplier of all things; 2) that [the missionary] is in need of His help (God works best with us when we acknowledge our need and weakness); and 3) that he is dependent on God. If prayers of this nature are prayed with arrogance or with an attitude of "moving the Hand of God", however, I believe that's sin.

Now, would God have given him the apartment if he didn't pray for it? I can't answer for God, but my guess is that He would have. In fact, God is always giving you and I things that we didn't ask for. For that we give Him thanks, right? But now that He did indeed provide it, [the missionary] can give God glory in acknowledging that God did it again, He provided. I believe that done rightly, prayer is our constant humbler and our reminder that He's the one with the power and in control. We are to commit ALL THINGS unto Him in prayer, though - to stay closely connected with Him - and not merely our requests.

Or last week, [the missionary] said things like "we feel your prayers as we are over there", why would keeping them in prayer help THEM? In other words, I know that prayer can be a means of benefiting those who do the praying. But how does it benefit the ones who are being prayed for, especially if they don't know about it?

I'm not exactly certain that he feels our prayers, per se. I think it's a way of saying, "We feel the strength of the Lord with us. We know you've been praying for us, which we know contributes to the strength we feel. Thank you for remembering, supporting us. That means a lot." Now, how this actually works, I'll try (feebly) to help clarify below.

Does it really benefit them in that God hears our prayers and them blesses them directly, which sounds contrary to what RC was saying. Or is it that as we pray, our hearts and minds are conformed more to His good will and desires, and then God uses US to bless the people we pray for through words or encouragement and letting them know that we have been praying for them for the sake of being like-minded in their mission?

Yes, what you say is very true. Much of the time, a big part of the answer to our prayer ends up being us! The more we pray for someone, the more they will be on our minds. The more they're on our minds, the more we'll be moved to put our desires/prayers into action by providing the support or need that we've been praying for - under the nudging and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Let me give an example. Suppose we're praying for people in Kenya to turn to the Lord. I believe that the Lord uses those prayers to raise our awareness and concern and love for the people in Kenya. Through our prayers and concern (as well as others around the world), we're likely going to engage others to be praying for Kenya too. And the same thing will happen to them. At some point, when the time is just right, and when some people's prayers have turned into commitment, the Lord may send some of these prayerful people to Kenya to share the gospel. These people, however, will now be backed up by people who will be like-minded and supporting their efforts. God may then very well start the process of turning hearts to Him in Africa.

Suppose only one person prayed for transformation in Kenya and no one else was involved in the process of prayer, preparation, going, sending, and support. Now suppose God "answered" that one prayer and somehow miraculously turned Kenyans' hearts to Him, how would the converted learn to grow and mature in the Lord on their own, with no other Christians to eagerly help and support them? They wouldn't - no follow-up.

God, in His perfect wisdom, not only ordained the ends (the transformation of Kenyans) but the means to that ends as well (in this case, the prayer, preaching, going, sending, follow-up, discipleship, etc.) So, while God does predestine certain people from all nations to become Christians (the ends), He also predestines the prayers (our prayers!), the preaching, and the ministry to accomplish those ends as well.

So will people become Christians without people's prayers? No, but not because God needs our prayers to move Him to do so. Rather, because God pre-ordained our prayers and the "foolishness of preaching" (as Paul calls it) as the means by which He brings salvation to people - so that WE can get the blessing and benefit of participating in the greatest of miracles - "turning hearts of stone into hearts of flesh".

God has designed this whole plan of redemption to involve many relationships and human interaction. In working together, we are forced to submit to one another, learn how to work and support each other, learn humility, patience, and forbearance, and on and on. We are forced to think of others before ourselves. It is when the people of the church love and act in this manner that we most reflect God, for that is exactly how the Persons of the Godhead interact too.

I don't know if this answers your questions or if you get what I'm saying. If not, please let me know and I'll try again another way.

Blessings,

Arthur

Return to Question and Answers Page