Prayer, and God's plan...

Hot topic: "So If you believe God has elected people before the foundation of the world those who will be saved and those who will not--why not just sit in your basement and eat cupcakes and not tell anyone about Jesus"?

My first two responses are this...

1: Jesus has commanded us to, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matt 28:19). This command is something I not only strive to obey, but delight to obey because God has replaced my heart of stone with a heart of flesh through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and given me new desires.

2: How is anyone going to believe if they haven't heard about Jesus? "But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?...So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:14,15,17).

Bottom line...the Gospel needs to be preached in order for people to even hear about Christ. Not only doing nice things for people with church friends. That's not the gospel. God created language...he wrote Truth with words...we must articulate the Gospel with the Word... not only in deed, that is not the whole gospel.

So here's the long answer: God is sovereign; He uses means like prayer and preaching.

"the preaching of the gospel is just as predestined as is the believing of the gospel: Paul was set apart for his preaching ministry before he was born (Galatians 1:15), as was Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5)" (Piper).

Saying "why evangelize if God has already chosen?" is like saying "why pray about anything if God's will is to be done?"

God command's it. Also, He sovereignly uses prayer---because His Spirit is the one who guides us in prayer.

"Prayer is like preaching in that it is a human act also. It is a human act that God has ordained and which he delights in because it reflects the dependence of his creatures upon Him. He has promised to respond to prayer, and his response is just as contingent upon our prayer as our prayer is in accordance with his will. "And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us" (I John 5:14). When we don't know how to pray according to God's will but desire it earnestly, "the Spirit of God intercedes for us according to the will of God" (Romans 8:27)" (John Piper, The Sovereignty of God and Prayer).


God uses means to accomplish His purposes. He uses prayer, so we should pray all the more...in accordance with His will. He uses preaching, so we should speak the Gospel all the more.


Holding tightly onto truths of God's supreme Sovereignty and Predestination do not create laziness. On the contrary, these are the very truths that spur me to action...to prayer, to speaking. These truths have caused me to fully recognize man's inability to freely "choose" salvation (John 6:44). These truths are beautiful because they give God ALL OF THE GLORY because salvation is all of God, and God alone--The Father, Son, and Spirit.

"The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever"

"For your joy,"
Sara Grace