free will and prayer

A good friend of mine recently posted on the difference prayer can make by quoting Andrew Murray from With Christ in the School of Prayer. To the claim that prayer makes a difference I say amen! But I think the quote oversteps Scripture.

The quote begins in error. "People think that what God wills must inevitably take place. This is by no means the case." Without getting into the "wills of God" discussion, Nebuchadnezzer would disagree. In Dan 4.34-35 we find, "... he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth ..." Paul would also disagree. In Rom 11.33-36, "... from him and through him and to him are all things ..."

R.C. Sprouls articulates the truth of God's sovereignty in Essential Truths of the Christian Faith,

What God creates, He also sustains. The universe is not only dependent upon God for its origin, it depends upon God for its continuity of existence. The universe can neither exist nor operate by its own power. God upholds all things by His power. It is in Him that we live, and move, and have our being.

The central point of the doctrine of providence is the stress on God’s government of the universe. He rules His creation with absolute sovereignty and authority. He governs everything that comes to pass, from the greatest to the least. Nothing ever happens beyond the scope of His sovereign providential government. He makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine. He raises up kingdoms and brings them down. He numbers the hairs on our head and the days of our life.

There is a crucial difference between the providence of God and fortune, fate, or luck. The key to this difference is found in the personal character of God. Fortune is blind while God is all-seeing. Fate is impersonal while God is a Father. Luck is dumb while God can speak. There are no blind, impersonal forces at work in human history. All is brought to pass by the invisible hand of Providence.

Murray continues, "God wills a great deal of blessing to His people which never comes to them. He wills it most earnestly, but they do not will it. Hence, it cannot come to them. This is the great mystery of man's creation with a free will and the renewal of his will in redemption. God has made the execution of His will dependent on the will of man."

He is heading down the "free will" path. I'll let Wayne Grudem respond.

... when we ask whether we have “free will,” it is important to be clear as to what is meant by the phrase. Scripture nowhere says that we are “free” in the sense of being outside of God’s control or of being able to make decisions that are not caused by anything. (This is the sense in which many people seem to assume we must be free) Nor does it say we are “free” in the sense of being able to do right on our own apart from God’s power. But we are nonetheless free in the greatest sense that any creature of God could be free—we make willing choices, choices that have real effects. We are aware of no restraints on our will from God when we make decisions. We must insist that we have the power of willing choice; otherwise we will fall into the error of fatalism or determinism and thus conclude that our choices do not matter, or that we cannot really make willing choices. On the other hand, the kind of freedom that is demanded by those who deny God’s providential control of all things, a freedom to be outside of God’s sustaining and controlling activity, would be impossible if Jesus Christ is indeed “continually carrying along things by his word of power” (Heb. 1:3, author’s translation). If this is true, then to be outside of that providential control would simply be not to exist! An absolute “freedom,” totally free of God’s control, is simply not possible in a world providentially sustained and directed by God himself.

So Murray is correct when saying, "Once God reveals to a soul what He is willing to do for it, the responsibility for the execution of that will rests with us." But the desire and ultimately the ability to execute comes from God. The reason prayer works is because God initiates it. Everything that happens is subordinate to His sovereignty.

The intent to encourage prayer is correct but some of the verbiage runs against Scripture. The closing paragraph of this quote is

In the same way, the very nature of God is to love and to bless. His love longs to come down to us with its quickening and refreshing streams. But He has left it to prayer to say where the blessing is channeled. He has committed it to His believing people to bring the living water to the desert places. The will of God to bless is dependent on the will of man to say where the blessing goes.

Murray would have done well to exclude the last sentence. God's blessings flow to the just and the unjust. He takes action when there is prayer and when there is not prayer.

My bottom line on Murrray, we have reason enough to pray, we need not add to Scripture to motivate.

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