Prayer Does Not Change God's Mind, But It Does Change Outcomes
How would you answer these two questions?
- Does prayer change God's mind/will?
- Does prayer change outcomes?
The answer to the first question is simple: no. Prayer does not change the mind or will of God, as if the omniscient Creator intended one outcome until one of his creatures gave him some wise counsel that He had not considered.
But we ought not to conclude from this that prayer then does not change outcomes. Prayer actually does change things. The key insight here is that prayer is a means that God uses to accomplish certain ends. As I have heard it said many times, "God is a God of means," and He often uses secondary causes to bring things about. God ordains both the ends as well as the means.
I draw attention to two places in Scripture. Consider first what the epistle of James says:
"From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
- James 4:1-3
"... yet ye have not, because ye ask not." James is plainly telling his audience that they do not have certain things, because they have not prayed and have not asked for those things. The direct implication here is that were they to pray and ask for those things, then God would give those things to them.
To look at one more text in Scripture, consider Exodus 32. Moses is up in Mount Sinai while the Israelites engage in idolatrous worship of a molten calf. God in response tells Moses that He will consume them with His wrath. Moses in turn responds with a prayer of intercession on behalf of the Israelites that they might be spared. Scripture then records the following of God:
"And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people."
- Exodus 32:14
The end in question here is the salvation (in the temporal sense) of the Israelites. God ordained this end. The means in question here is the prayer of Moses. God also ordained this prayer. It is not that God simply knew that Moses would pray on behalf of the Israelites. God actually decreed the prayer as well, and the prayer served as the means to save the Israelites from destruction.
We should never think that prayer is useless or that prayer does not cause things to happen. The truth of God's sovereignty should not deter prayer—in fact, it is the very opposite. It is the fact that God is sovereign that gives prayer any power and meaning at all; for if God were not in control of all outcomes, why pray and petition God at all? Let us pray diligently, knowing that our prayers may very well be the means that God uses to accomplish some of His glorious purposes.