Why pray if God already knows?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. As you know, we’re in our series in the Psalms looking at when and how to pray. Um, but the question comes in this week really, why should we pray? Specifically, if God is sovereign and knows what’s going to happen, um, and you know, already seen the end, why, why should we pray?

What difference is it going to make if we pray? It’s not like we’re going to change outcomes because God already knows the outcome. Why, why should we pray? Um, so there’s several responses to this and of course, we’ve probably all asked this question from time to time. Um, it might feel useless to pray, might feel hopeless to pray, might feel like we’re not making any difference. Um, and so for those of us who have asked that question, or if it’s just an intellectual exercise, why should we pray?

Several responses. First, we’re told to pray. You know, when Jesus says, when you pray, pray like this, right? Um, and he offers the the Lord’s prayer, we call it, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Um, and so we’re told to pray. We’re commanded to pray. That’s the first reason. Um, the second reason is what we’ve seen in the Psalms with um, with with our each week.

Yes, there might be an outcome that results from our prayer, and we’ll talk about that shortly. But really, what prayer a lot of times does is change us. It gets us on the same page with God, uh, praying for his will to be done. Um, or as we adore him, we get more joy or as we’re lamenting, he brings us back uh into into peace and calm.

And so, uh an acronym for prayer can be prayer really alters you, P R A Y. “Prayer really alters you”. Prayer really changes you. Prayer really alters you. Um, and so it’s for you. There’s a benefit to you, even if the outcome is exactly the same or even if your circumstances remain exactly the same. Something changes about you through prayer. Uh, and so that’s a second benefit, um, or reason to pray. Uh, and then thirdly, we are told, and this is, you know, we’ll we’ll we’ll

talk about some intellectual arguments around this in a second, but first, just, I mean, James says, you have not because you ask not. Um, and when you ask, you ask with wrong wrong motives, that you might spend what you get on yourselves. Um, this idea is, you know, to pray for the goodness of those around you, kind of selflessly, how Jesus was humble and selfless in everything he did, that’s our model.

But it’s you have not because you ask not. That you will experience a different outcome if you pray, is what James says. And then we say, well, but God already knew what was going to happen, so how does that even work? It can’t change what God already knew was going to happen because then he wouldn’t have known what’s going to happen.

Okay, we’ll get there in a second. First, just submit to scripture, you have not because you ask not. Start asking. Um, you’ll see things happen. Things that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t prayed. Uh, and you know, I throughout the course of our life, we might go through um, different seasons of our understanding of that, but the longer you live, uh, go go find some saints who’ve been around for a while. Uh, they’ll tell you, prayer matters.

It changes things. They’ve seen it. Um, and so I just just lean into it, uh, and you’ll begin to experience it. Now on the intellectual side of how prayer really changes things, I might argue, uh, yeah, God knew what the outcome was going to be, but he also knew if you were going to pray. Um, and so if you if you weren’t going to pray, he would have known that, and then the outcome would have that he would have already also known would have been the outcome of you not praying.

And so, you know, he knows the end from the beginning. He knows everything in between. Um, he sees all of history all at once. Yes, to him it’s already over, but for you and your lived experience, it hasn’t happened yet. And so, uh, if you pray, you will see this outcome, and if you didn’t pray, you would see this other outcome. And God would have known what you were going to do in terms of prayer to orchestrate what was going to happen, uh, whether you prayed, which which direction you went, if

you prayed or if you didn’t pray. Um, and so, but I we don’t have God’s perspective. What we have is our perspective. We’re facing a situation. We want to see change. We pray. If we want to have it, we got to ask for it. Uh, the inverse of what James says there. Uh, so thanks for the question. We encourage you to just pray. And then you’ll find out why, right?

As we’ve said many times, uh, if you want to know why, submit and apply, and then you’ll know. Um, and the scripture tells us to pray. So, uh, hope that helps, and we’ll see you next time.