Chapter 10: Does Prayer Change God?
In chapter ten, Yancey explores the apparent contradiction between an unchanging God and the God also portrayed in scripture as being changed by the prayers of His people. Yancey contemplates how prayer works. If God has already willed certain events and outcomes, why pray? Is it to change us and not God? If God's will cannot be changed, then is prayer in vain? Other questions include "Why pray if God already knows?" He also gives many examples of God responding to prayers for deliverance, healing, adding years to a life and forestalling a promised punishment. So, does He change or does He not change?
Beginning with the heading "Timeless Complexity," Yancey writes:
I envy, truly I envy, those people who pray in simple faith without fretting about how prayer works and how God governs the planet. For some reason I cannot avoid pondering these imponderables.
I understand these comments because I am also a deep thinker. It has seemed that throughout my life I have pondered a lot of questions that have not occurred to others right alongside me. I can't list the number of times I've asked someone, "Have you ever thought about it that way?" and they've looked at me expressionless and said, "I just never think about it."
However, I have never needed to figure out how prayer works. And I don't see a contradiction between God's unchanging nature and His responding with compassion and mercy to prayer, relenting or even changing His mind. God Himself does not change. But He is love and He is a God of mercy. His will for us is not changed, but details can be altered without changing His ultimate will. Sometimes His response brings about His will. Other times, it is His lack of response. Because sometimes our prayers are in accordance with His will and other times they are not.
I think the prayers we view as unanswered, or the times when we think God did not intervene, were times when His response to our request would have changed His ultimate will for our lives. I believe all of this because I trust Him. I don't mean that I trust Him as completely as I should. But I don't think I know better than God. I realize and have always realized that God sees the entire "rest of the story" of our lives and we don't even know what's going to happen later this afternoon. I don't want God to do everything I ask because I know I don't always ask for the right things. But if I am His child, I will bring my requests to Him because it is within His power to grant them and because I know He cares for me. Not necessarily because I think He will always do what I ask. What good parent does everything their child asks?
I think Yancey is saying virtually the same thing when he writes, "I go to God with my concerns, though, as a child goes to a loving Father. I admit my dependence and make known my requests, fully aware that God and not I will make the final decision."
Reading through this chapter, I thought of the most significant answered prayers in my life. And it struck me how every single one of them had to do with guidance, not miraculous intervention. But what seemed like guidance at one point ultimately became miraculous intervention and deliverance at a later time. Often, much later.
The first prayer that came to my mind was probably twenty-five years ago. I prayed, "I don't believe this could possibly be your will, but I know that if it is, my heart has to be willing. Please make me willing." God responded almost immediately to that prayer. I became willing.
Another time I have never forgotten was more than five years ago. I remember being in my car and being so torn apart inside from anxiety. I was agonizing over a choice I had made, feeling I really had not had a choice (because I would have chosen differently if I could have). Very uncharacteristically of me, I practically demanded that God show me in an undeniable way if I had displeased Him with my choice. I told Him I would reverse my decision and I would be willing to suffer for the rest of my life if He would just show me that it was His will. But if that wasn't His will, I needed Him to take away the anxiety and torment because I knew that He was the only one who could. I needed His direction. I needed to know if He was upset with me or I had done the wrong thing -- so I could change direction and be in His will, whatever it was. He responded immediately. He completely took away that debilitating anxiety and I never worried again about my decision after praying that afternoon. It was one of my more desperate prayers ever. But it was for His will, not my escape from suffering.
In the years that followed, I have asked God many times to show me if I have displeased Him with regard to another pivotal decision in my life; leaving my former church. Each time He has responded with assurance that I am in His will and He is the One who delivered me. I could go into great detail, but there have been too many confirmations for me to list. Most importantly, God continues to illuminate the truth of the Gospel to me through His Word.
I remember praying in the last couple of years that God would show me hidden motives in my heart that were not what I thought they were. I asked Him to show me what I didn't see. He responded right away. It was painful. But I grew up a little more in Him.
I remember God showing me not that long ago that I had bitterness in my heart toward someone I truly believed I had not one ounce of bitterness toward. One sentence came out of my mouth (to nobody but my husband) and it was a Peter moment (the cock crowing). I instantly knew I would not have made that statement if there was no bitterness. I asked God to forgive me and take that out of me. As of today, I feel like it's gone. But I won't rule out the possibility that God may reveal more of it to me. I have learned that I cannot trust my own heart. I have to trust God and obey Him.
More recently, I was praying about a situation that was causing me a lot of fear and anxiety. I couldn't make a choice and change what was happening. It wasn't my doing and it wasn't within my control. So I prayed for something very specific, which I felt would alleviate some of my anxiety. God showed me that I was putting my hope in something other than Him. So lovingly, He reminded me not to put my hope in a certain set of circumstances, but to put my hope in Him and in His promise to work all things for my good. I would not say I never again experienced fear or anxiety, but I began that day to put my hope in God and not in any specific outcome. No matter what uncertainty I may ever face, God is with me. His grace is sufficient. He has proven that to me again and again. All of those experiences have deepened my faith and increased my ability to trust Him, even when I don't get the answers I necessarily want.
My life is a life of deliverance. I could not be where I am today without God's consistent mercy and intervention in my life. God used all of those prayers to bring about miracles for me. But none of them happened in the twinkling of an eye. Most of the time, they were the result of a long, difficult process. Prayer is an important part of that process.
Prayer for others is something I view as my duty as a Christian. I am not fulfilling my role in God's plan when I fail to pray for the needs of others. I try not to pray to control the outcome and have my will be done. I pray for others in much the same way I pray for myself. I pray (sometimes plead) for God's mercy. But ultimately, I pray for His will to be done and for my submission to His will. I know God responds to our desire for His will and His glory. He has made that abundantly clear in my life through my prayers. Until writing this post, I had not reflected on all of those specific prayers collectively as I just have. That is one of the things I love about writing on this blog. If nobody ever reads a thing I write, I remind myself of God's faithfulness and His goodness. I remind myself of all that God has invested in me; in all of us.
Beginning with the heading "Timeless Complexity," Yancey writes:
I envy, truly I envy, those people who pray in simple faith without fretting about how prayer works and how God governs the planet. For some reason I cannot avoid pondering these imponderables.
I understand these comments because I am also a deep thinker. It has seemed that throughout my life I have pondered a lot of questions that have not occurred to others right alongside me. I can't list the number of times I've asked someone, "Have you ever thought about it that way?" and they've looked at me expressionless and said, "I just never think about it."
However, I have never needed to figure out how prayer works. And I don't see a contradiction between God's unchanging nature and His responding with compassion and mercy to prayer, relenting or even changing His mind. God Himself does not change. But He is love and He is a God of mercy. His will for us is not changed, but details can be altered without changing His ultimate will. Sometimes His response brings about His will. Other times, it is His lack of response. Because sometimes our prayers are in accordance with His will and other times they are not.
I think the prayers we view as unanswered, or the times when we think God did not intervene, were times when His response to our request would have changed His ultimate will for our lives. I believe all of this because I trust Him. I don't mean that I trust Him as completely as I should. But I don't think I know better than God. I realize and have always realized that God sees the entire "rest of the story" of our lives and we don't even know what's going to happen later this afternoon. I don't want God to do everything I ask because I know I don't always ask for the right things. But if I am His child, I will bring my requests to Him because it is within His power to grant them and because I know He cares for me. Not necessarily because I think He will always do what I ask. What good parent does everything their child asks?
I think Yancey is saying virtually the same thing when he writes, "I go to God with my concerns, though, as a child goes to a loving Father. I admit my dependence and make known my requests, fully aware that God and not I will make the final decision."
Reading through this chapter, I thought of the most significant answered prayers in my life. And it struck me how every single one of them had to do with guidance, not miraculous intervention. But what seemed like guidance at one point ultimately became miraculous intervention and deliverance at a later time. Often, much later.
The first prayer that came to my mind was probably twenty-five years ago. I prayed, "I don't believe this could possibly be your will, but I know that if it is, my heart has to be willing. Please make me willing." God responded almost immediately to that prayer. I became willing.
Another time I have never forgotten was more than five years ago. I remember being in my car and being so torn apart inside from anxiety. I was agonizing over a choice I had made, feeling I really had not had a choice (because I would have chosen differently if I could have). Very uncharacteristically of me, I practically demanded that God show me in an undeniable way if I had displeased Him with my choice. I told Him I would reverse my decision and I would be willing to suffer for the rest of my life if He would just show me that it was His will. But if that wasn't His will, I needed Him to take away the anxiety and torment because I knew that He was the only one who could. I needed His direction. I needed to know if He was upset with me or I had done the wrong thing -- so I could change direction and be in His will, whatever it was. He responded immediately. He completely took away that debilitating anxiety and I never worried again about my decision after praying that afternoon. It was one of my more desperate prayers ever. But it was for His will, not my escape from suffering.
In the years that followed, I have asked God many times to show me if I have displeased Him with regard to another pivotal decision in my life; leaving my former church. Each time He has responded with assurance that I am in His will and He is the One who delivered me. I could go into great detail, but there have been too many confirmations for me to list. Most importantly, God continues to illuminate the truth of the Gospel to me through His Word.
I remember praying in the last couple of years that God would show me hidden motives in my heart that were not what I thought they were. I asked Him to show me what I didn't see. He responded right away. It was painful. But I grew up a little more in Him.
I remember God showing me not that long ago that I had bitterness in my heart toward someone I truly believed I had not one ounce of bitterness toward. One sentence came out of my mouth (to nobody but my husband) and it was a Peter moment (the cock crowing). I instantly knew I would not have made that statement if there was no bitterness. I asked God to forgive me and take that out of me. As of today, I feel like it's gone. But I won't rule out the possibility that God may reveal more of it to me. I have learned that I cannot trust my own heart. I have to trust God and obey Him.
More recently, I was praying about a situation that was causing me a lot of fear and anxiety. I couldn't make a choice and change what was happening. It wasn't my doing and it wasn't within my control. So I prayed for something very specific, which I felt would alleviate some of my anxiety. God showed me that I was putting my hope in something other than Him. So lovingly, He reminded me not to put my hope in a certain set of circumstances, but to put my hope in Him and in His promise to work all things for my good. I would not say I never again experienced fear or anxiety, but I began that day to put my hope in God and not in any specific outcome. No matter what uncertainty I may ever face, God is with me. His grace is sufficient. He has proven that to me again and again. All of those experiences have deepened my faith and increased my ability to trust Him, even when I don't get the answers I necessarily want.
My life is a life of deliverance. I could not be where I am today without God's consistent mercy and intervention in my life. God used all of those prayers to bring about miracles for me. But none of them happened in the twinkling of an eye. Most of the time, they were the result of a long, difficult process. Prayer is an important part of that process.
Prayer for others is something I view as my duty as a Christian. I am not fulfilling my role in God's plan when I fail to pray for the needs of others. I try not to pray to control the outcome and have my will be done. I pray for others in much the same way I pray for myself. I pray (sometimes plead) for God's mercy. But ultimately, I pray for His will to be done and for my submission to His will. I know God responds to our desire for His will and His glory. He has made that abundantly clear in my life through my prayers. Until writing this post, I had not reflected on all of those specific prayers collectively as I just have. That is one of the things I love about writing on this blog. If nobody ever reads a thing I write, I remind myself of God's faithfulness and His goodness. I remind myself of all that God has invested in me; in all of us.
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