If God is Sovereign, Why Pray?

[The following is a summary from a sermon Pastor Mike Ruel preached on Romans 15:22-33, which can be found here]

In Romans 15:30, Paul writes to the church in Rome: “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf…” (Romans 15:30 ESV)

But if God is sovereign, why pray? Doesn’t he have it all figured out already? Then what does he need us for?  Furthermore, if you know the end of the story [spoiler alert] Paul doesn’t get his request…he asks them to pray in v31 “that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.” (Romans 15:31-32 ESV).  Upon getting to Jerusalem, he is arrested and eventually sent to Rome, not to visit the church as he wanted to, but to be executed after a few years.  So then…why pray? Five reasons:

1. God commands it. First, prayer is commanded by God. We see the model for prayer here. Furthermore, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 simply says “Pray without ceasing.” Additionally, Jesus models prayer as he spent many hours in prayer and modeled for us how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s look at this together as the Lord himself teaches us about prayer through His Word. “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:7-13 ESV) We are commanded to pray, and Jesus models prayer for us.  If Jesus needed to pray, how much more should we?
2. Prayer shows our dependence on God. A.W. Pink said, “Prayer is not designed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need, but it is designed as a confession to Him of our sense of need.” Going back to the Lord’s Prayer, we see Jesus modeling that we depend on God for our daily bread – everything we have is from God, our next breath of God’s air. Everything is from him. A prayerless person is actually saying that they don’t need God for anything. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
3. Prayer brings us into closer communion with God. Stop and think about that – we get to talk to God. We get to be with God in prayer. We commune with God in prayer. John Owen wrote “Our prayers can be considered two ways (1) as a spiritual duty required of us and (2) As a means of retaining communion with God, whereby we sweetly ease our hearts in the bosom of the Father and receive refreshing tastes of his love.” When we pray, we are literally spending close, intimate time with God himself.
4. Prayer is the means by which God accomplishes his will. We ask God to do things, and he actually listens. We ask God to draw people to himself and he does. We ask him for empowerment in life and ministry and he grants it. The list goes on, but prayer literally involves US in the will of God. We pray according to God’s will, God answers, and then we are encouraged in the faith.  One pastor put it this way “Prayer is the essence of the work to which God called us. We frequently speak about praying for the work, but essentially prayer IS the real work.”
5. Prayer shows us that God cares about us. Scripture tells us in Ephesians 6 – I like CSB here: “Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request,” (Ephesians 6:18 CSB17) God supplies all of our needs in Christ Jesus thru PRAYER.  We are free to pray for anything we want, resting in the promise that he hears us and will give us what is best for us as the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27 ESV)

But what about when God doesn’t answer our prayers? I mean, he didn’t answer this one…Paul technically wasn’t kept safe from the Jews…and he was executed and never made it to Rome…or even Spain. I mean, wouldn’t God answer a prayer from the Apostle Paul to go and plant more churches in Europe? No. And is Paul OK with that? Yes. Look back at Acts 20. “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24 ESV) When we pray, we have to be OK with God’s answer.

Think back to Jesus himself in the garden, before the cross asking “Please, do I have to do this? Is there any other way?” And Christ went to the cross willingly bc God said no and Jesus was OK with that – “Not my will, but yours be done.” That’s what we are saying in prayer. Why? BC his will is better than our will and we trust him. And therefore, we need to be praying that way for Highlands and for each other. That’s why we should pray.