Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Troy Edwards on the Consequences of Failing to Pray


Troy Edwards, an Open Theist, wrote the following about the efficacy of prayer by focusing on the consequences of not praying:

Consequences of Failing to Pray

James wrote, “ . . . ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:2). The word “because” tells us the reason for the lack of an answer. We do not get things from God because we fail to pray and ask for them. A more positive “because” in Scripture tells us the importance that God places on our asking before He is able to give:

Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD. (1 Sam. 1:20)

Hannah was unable to have children. This made her the object of ridicule. She asked from the Lord and God healed her and gave her the ability to have children. This was because she asked. The reason that God gives is because we ask. The reason He is unable to give is because we do not ask.

Our failure to pray is the reason that God’s will is so often undone in our lives. For example, in Psalm 81, we are promised, “I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10).

It is the will of God to fill our mouths, and to fill them with good things. However, the decision is ours as to whether or not we will open our mouths. God may have the omnipotent power to pray them open, but He does not force His will on us and He will not shove good things through a closed mouth and clenched teeth. Sadly, Israel’s failure to open their mouths kept them from the future that God desired for them:

But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee (Psalm 81:11-16)

The Psalmist said, “Israel would none of me.” God was willing to do many great things for Israel but they were unwilling to receive it. In Hosea God says, “When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria” (Hosea. 7:1). It was God’s will to heal Israel but their wickedness prevented God from fulfilling His will for them (see Isa. 59:1, 2; Jer. 5:25; and others). Their failure to have God’s will done in their lives was not only due to their sin, but also their failure to pray:

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me . . . And the pride of Israel satisfieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, not seek him for all this . . .And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me. (Isa. 7:7, 10, 14)

The negative circumstances that many find themselves in are not necessarily the will of God, but are due to a lack of willingness to submit to His wonderful will (2 Kings 13:14-19; Isa. 48:18-19) through prayer and obedience. Note God’s pained response to Israel’s failure to ask Him for help during their time of trouble:

Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion (Isa. 30:1-3)

Again James 4:2 says, “ . . .ye have not, because ye ask not.”

Because Israel wanted to live in sin, they refused to seek help from God and therefore received none. In another passage we discover that God searched for someone to pray in order to prevent a disaster from coming upon the land:

“I look for a man among them who would stand up for Jerusalem. I tried to find someone who would pray to me for the land. Then I would not have to destroy it. But I could not find anyone who would pray for it. So I will pour out my anger on its people. I will destroy them because my anger burns against them. And anything that happens to them will be their own fault,” announces the Lord and King. (Ezekiel 22:30-31; New International Reader’s Version)

We have the wrong idea that if God needs something done that He will always find someone to do it. We think that if one person refuses, God can easily find another. However, as we look at this passage, God was searching for someone to stand in the gap so that he would not have to bring judgment, but the sad commentary is that He would not find anyone. When we fail to stand in the gap—fail to pray for the nation—then we are responsible for its destruction. (Troy J. Edwards, Is the Future Set in Stone? A Biblical Study of God’s Relation to Time and Knowledge of the Future [Vindicating God Ministries, 2019], 160-62)

On the efficacy of prayer, be sure to listen to the following two episodes of Blake Ostler's Exploring Mormon Thought podcast: