Prayer and Providence

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How do we understand God’s providence? If I pray for something and it does or does not happen, was that God or just chance? To an unbeliever, this would just seem like confirmation bias.

Introduction: This is a wonderful group of questions that is often on the minds of Christians. Our approach will be:

1. A general understanding of prayer & its purpose
2. Discerning an answer to prayer: God or chance?
3. God’s promises of answered prayer
4. Providence in relation to prayer

1. General Understanding of Prayer
   1. Prayer is an act of faith. Before all else it is dependence on God. Such faith and dependence does not care how God answers a prayer. He has the knowledge of what is best and we don’t. The intention of prayer cannot be to direct God to fulfill our desires. The foundation of prayer is God’s will not ours.
   2. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 There are different kinds of prayer and prayers for different purposes. All types of prayers are either appropriate or inappropriate depending on the occasion. Public prayer especially is occasion and purpose driven and not intended to cover everything that could or should be said. Private prayers can be far different.
   3. Public prayer does not include preaching and admonishing the audience. Instead, everyone should be able to pray through the leader. The leader is praying on behalf of the church not to the church. We are talking to God, no one else.
2. Discerning the Answer to Prayer: Was that God or Chance?
   1. It is common for people to make guesses concerning what God is doing and the answer to prayer. This fits the question above. A believer would say an event was an answer to prayer and an atheist would say it was just chance.
   2. Ecclesiastes 8:16–9:2 “then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun…the same even happens to the righteous and the wicked.” 
   3. As a reminder, scripture gives us five reasons for events in this life:
      1. God did it
      2. Satan did it
      3. Consequences of choices made whether good or bad (Proverbs)
      4. Answer to prayer
      5. Time and chance (Ecclesiastes 11-12)
   4. When we pray and we can see that God answered, we should give thanks to God regardless of which of the above took place. Sometimes the answer may come in ways that we do not recognize – especially in the short term, but we still have have a thankful trust that God is hearing and answering. Consider the following:
3. God’s Promises of Answered Prayer
   1. 1 John 5:13-15
   2. 1 John 3:19-22
   3. John 14:12-14; 15:7-8
   4. “Was that God or chance?” The problem with the wording of this question is that, whether intentionally or unintentionally, it expresses doubt. See James 1:2-5. 
      1. Is the Bible God’s word or not? If it is God’s word, then we need to rest in faith/trust that he will answer in his time and in his way. First and foremost, prayer is based on absolute trust that God has never failed his promises.
         1. Our expectations of God answering within a certain time period is a lack of trust.
         2. Consider the parents of John the Baptist. How long had they been praying for a child? And how long had it been since they gave up praying? Little did they know that God had a purpose in delaying the answer to their prayers.
         3. Luke 18:1-8
      2. Many times we ask questions like this concerning trials. Especially in the case of trials, we can be very much like Job. Like Job, we are expecting relief from the trial or expecting relief from the trial in a certain way (was that really an answer or not?). Remember, God’s answer to Job was, “It’s none of your business how and when I go about answering your prayers. In fact, your prayers miss the mark of how fully I care for you and your lack of trust in the care I have for you.” 
   5. Concerning how an unbeliever would evaluate God’s answer to prayer: whether or not God answers prayer is not the basis upon which we would prove the existence of God. If an unbeliever is skeptical of God through his personal observations of answered prayer, he is using the wrong measure. Such observations are too subjective.
      1. First, to make such an evaluation assumes that God will answer our prayers exactly the way we prayed them. What if we prayed a bad prayer, one that would be to our hurt? Would not a good Father give us a “fish” instead of the “stone” that we prayed for?
      2. Consider, with all the prayers Joseph would have uttered over his 23 years of captivity and separation from his family, it was not until the very end that he was able to discern God’s purposes.
4. Providence in Relation to Prayer
   1. The word “providence” is never used in the Bible in reference to God, but the idea certainly applies to God. Here are a few ways the word is used:
      1. Acts 24:2 “Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation…” 
      2. Romans 13:14 “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” 
      3. 1 Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 
   2. The definition of the word carries the idea of “providing by forethought for achieving a purpose.” Divine providence is the foresight and resultant provisions God has made to bring about his desired goal.
      1. Ephesians 1:4 “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him…” 
      2. Ephesians 1:5 “…he predestined us for adoption to himself…according to the purpose of his will…”
      3. Ephesians 1:9 “…making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time…” 
   3. Of course, God does many things that have to do with him fulfilling his purposes that do not specifically connect with our prayers. But God also works providentially as a result of our prayers.
   4. God working “providentially” and working “miraculously” are not the same thing. The miraculous was used by God through Christ and those so gifted in order to clearly reveal God’s intrusion into the world. The miraculous is clearly discerned by the unbeliever (Acts 4:13).
   5. However, what God does providentially to bring about his purposes is not discerned by those who reject God. This is what the question is addressing – “To an unbeliever, this would just seem like confirmation bias.” 
      1. For example, what would a historian answer concerning why Babylon fell? Persia? Greece? Rome? And yet, God claims their destruction every time.
      2. Consider Isaiah 10:5-6. God used Assyria to punish his people. Israel could discern this because God told them of his plans.
      3. Revelation 8:3-5 illustrates God’s answer to prayer in the punishment of Rome. But would Rome or any present day historian have discerned that?
      4. Proverbs 3:5-7
      5. Philippians 2:12-13; 4:6-7
      6. 1 Timothy 2:1-4

Conclusion: “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart…Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:1, 8)