Through our prayers, God accomplishes His purposes. We know that as we pray according to His will, He says yes to our requests. We do not know God’s eternal, sovereign plan in all its details, but we do know that He works through prayer and answers prayer. “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). Yet, although prayer does not actually change God’s mind, prayer does change things. 6:8), and He does not alter His eternal, sovereign plan simply on our say-so. The Father knows what we need before we ask (Matt. Elijah did not give the Lord new information or act in a way that God did not anticipate. None of this should be taken to mean that our prayers actually change God’s mind. Both God’s sovereign determination and the prayers of Elijah brought about the result because God ordained the drought and its end as well as that it would be accomplished through the prayers of Elijah. Why did the drought start and end? Because God ordained that it would, and because Elijah prayed for such things. But from the same narrative, as well as James 5:16–18, we also know that the drought and its end occurred as a result of Elijah’s prayers. Because God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, we know that He ordained the drought that plagued Israel in the days of Ahab, as well as the end of the drought (1 Kings 17:1–7 18:41–46). We see an illustration of this in today’s passage. In the case of prayer, we know that God has ordained that He will make certain things happen in response to our intercession. For example, He has not only ordained that the gospel will go forth to all nations, but He has ordained that the gospel will go forth through the means of the Great Commission as the church makes disciples of all nations (Matt. That is, our Creator has determined what will happen as well as the means that will make happen what He has determined will happen. The simplest answer is that God ordains both the ends and the means. 1:11), why should we pray? If God already knows what is going to happen and, indeed, if He has already determined what will happen, what is the point of praying at all? In light of the fact that God is sovereign over all and has ordained whatsoever comes to pass according to the good pleasure of His will (Eph. Prayer is not an escape from reality but an invitation to embrace it fully. Mother Teresa’s quote reminds us that prayer has the power to transform us, leading to positive change in ourselves and the world around us. Concluding our short study on prayer today, we will consider one final matter that frequently arises when we talk about the subject. It changes us, and then we change things.
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