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)