Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:” (Isaiah 37:21–22, ESV)
“Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass” (Isaiah 37:26, ESV)
In the last devotion, we saw that Hezekiah prayed and that the Lord sent Him a message of assurance. Our conclusion is that there is great assurance in God’s sovereignty. Now, we could write volumes on prayer and many have done so. Yet, one question remains from Hezekiah’s experience. Since God has a Sovereign program that he works to fulfill, does our prayer have anything to do with influencing the outcome?
Many incorrectly assert that our prayer can force God to act. The natural extension of this is that if we pray hard enough, God would do something contrary to His sovereign program. However, this would make God subservient to the will of man, which is not the case. We are subservient to God. This would also mean that God would be capricious, or fickle.
James presented some precepts that will help us grasp how our prayers fit into the supreme working of God. Look at James words regarding prayer when he wrote, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). James clearly indicated that our asking joins with the sovereign program of God. From these words, we must conclude that God’s sovereign program is a vitally linked with certain prayers of the Saints. Thus, we must pray.
Moreover, James indicated, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3). Here we understand that not everything for which we pray fits into God’s sovereign purposes for us. He knows what we need before we ask. It is when our prayers join His sovereign program that our prayer is powerful and effective. John reinforced this thought.
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.“ (1 John 5:14-15, ESV)
Effective prayer is about us joining God’s sovereign program. It is not the other way around. We call upon Him in an effort to join our hearts with His, to see His purposes accomplished. In the case of Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance from the Assyrian threat, his prayer was a vital part of God’s sovereign plan.
We ought to look at every situation and pray from the perspective of God’s sovereignty. He does have an awesome plan. We should consider His purposes and pray for His will to be accomplished.
Renewing the Heart 