Luke 1:10 (ESV) And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense (emphasis mine).
Luke 1:13 (ESV) But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John (emphasis mine).
The Bible clearly teaches that God is sovereign over the entire universe. Nothing happens apart from what God has ordained: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Pro. 16:33). Notice how God selected Zechariah to go into the temple that year:
“Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense” (Luke 1:8-9, emphasis mine). God in his providence chose Zechariah to enter the temple that year. God also chose to give Zechariah a son in direct response to his prayers: “Your prayer has been heard.” Note that the “your” here is a second-person singular pronoun. Zechariah’s prayer was heard. Zechariah’s prayer was answered with an affirmative, “your wife…will bear you a son.” Prayer changes things.
What about God’s Sovereignty?
So, while God is sovereign, his sovereignty ought not to undermine our motive to pray. As a Calvinist, I’ve often heard the critiques or questions related to God’s sovereignty making evangelism or missions frivolous. If God has elected some to salvation, then why evangelize? The same is often said of prayer. If God has ordained all things then why pray? But if you believe as I do that God is in control of absolutely everything, then this means God has ordained both the means and end of a thing. God ordained that Zechariah would be in the temple to hear from the angel of the Lord just as he ordained the prayers of “the whole multitude” outside. God not only ordained that Elizabeth would bear a son. He ordained Elizabeth would bear a son in direct response to Zechariah’s prayers. Zechariah’s prayer was the means. Prayer changes things.
Some might say this sounds like God needs our prayers to accomplish his will in the world. What if Zechariah had not prayed? Of course, God does not need our prayers. Scripture is clear: "It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior" (Heb. 7:7). The creator is not dependent on his creatures. He is the benefactor and we are the beneficiaries. When it comes to the will of God, some things are certain to come to be regardless of our prayers. Yet there are obvious examples of things that take place clearly because of prayer. R. C. Sproul, in Does God Change Things?, makes a helpful distinction here. There is a difference between God changing things and God changing his mind as a result of prayer. God never changes his mind. He is unchanging. But things do change as a result of prayer. Sproul states,
The mind of God does not change for God does not change. Things change, and they change according to His sovereign will, which He exercises through secondary means and secondary activities. The prayer of His people is one of the means He uses to bring things to pass in this world. So if you ask me whether prayer changes things, I answer with an unhesitating “Yes!” (Sproul 2009, 15).
Look no further than the example of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. It was the will of God for Jesus to suffer and die on the cross for the sins of his people. So when Jesus prays, the will of God does not change, but things do change. Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him" (Luke 22:42-43).
What changed? There's no change in God's will. It was still the will of God to crush the Son as an atonement for sins (Isa. 53:10). But we see in verse 43, that angels came to strengthen Jesus because of his prayer. While God's will did not change, things changed. Prayer changes things.
What about My Sick Child and My Job Interview?
So, you say, that was Jesus in the garden. But what about my sick child? What about my job interview? How does this impact the way I pray about my cousin's cancer or a parking spot when I'm running late? First, we remember that while we know God's revealed will in Scripture, we don't know God's will God's exhaustively: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deut. 29:29). Second, God's word is sufficient (2 Tim. 3:16-17) and God's divine power has given us all we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3). So our inability to know God's will exhaustively ought not to be a limitation for our prayer life. These two guardrails keep us from falling into a ditch on either side of the highway. We shouldn't think that anything is so trivial that God does not care. After all, God cares enough about the grass of the field to clothe it with lilies. Surely your parking spot, math test, and date with that really cute gal from your math class matter to God. Why not pray about them? Do you know what God's ordained will may be for these situations? No. But do you know prayer changes things? Yes! Apply these principles of the trivial to the more severe, your cousin's cancer, that pending biopsy result, your sick child, and so forth. Do you know God's ordained will for these situations? No. But do you know prayer changes things? Yes. Yes, you know. And you know God cares. Why not pray? Prayer changes things. You may not know what prayer may change. Perhaps that spot would never have opened. Perhaps that test may have come back positive if you had failed to pray. As Wayne Gretzky (or was it Michael Scott?) said, "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."
Or, if The Office and Gretzky are not reverent enough for your taste, consider how the classic hymn states it:
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear—All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. - What a Friend We Have in Jesus by Joseph Scriven
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