Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Sovereignty of God and Prayer

I have been recently doing some study on the relationship of the Sovereignty of God and Christian Prayer. Many people seem to have a hard time accepting this truth. I remember at one time on my journey having a hard time with this idea. Now I have a hard time understanding prayer to a God that is not the Sovereign of the Universe. It was Spurgeon who said in a sermon titled 'Free Will - Slave', "You have heard a great many Arminian sermons, I dare say; but you never heard an Arminian prayer—for the saints in prayer appear as one in word, and deed and mind. An Arminian on his knees would pray desperately like a Calvinist. He cannot pray about free-will: there is no room for it. Fancy him praying, "Lord, I thank thee I am not like those poor presumptuous Calvinists. Lord, I was born with a glorious free-will; I was born with power by which I can turn to thee of myself; I have improved my grace. If everybody had done the same with their grace that I have, they might all have been saved. Lord, I know thou dost not make us willing if we are not willing ourselves. Thou givest grace to everybody; some do not improve it, but I do. There are many that will go to hell as much bought with the blood of Christ as I was; they had as much of the Holy Ghost given to them; they had as good a chance, and were as much blessed as I am. It was not thy grace that made us to differ; I know it did a great deal, still I turned the point; I made use of what was given me, and others did not—that is the difference between me and them." That is a prayer for the devil, for nobody else would offer such a prayer as that. Ah! when they are preaching and talking very slowly, there may be wrong doctrine; but when they come to pray, the true thing slips out; they cannot help it. If a man talks very slowly, he may speak in a fine manner; but when he comes to talk fast, the old brogue of his country, where he was born, slips out."
Here are A.W. Pink's comments on this topic (Chapter Nine of 'Sovereignty of God') : http://www.reformed.org/books/pink/pink_sov_09.html

Grace be with you all in Christ Jesus our Lord!

1 comment:

Jefferson Twillsbury said...

Thanks for this, and the pdf. I was trying to explain it all to my wife just the other night and this will be very helpful!

also: hi.