PERPLEXING QUESTION

"Why Pray?"
One of my “go to” guys for answers is Richard Foster. In his book called prayer he says “but what about the fact that not everyone who receives prayer is healed? Certainly not everyone I pray for is healed, and I imagine you’ve experienced the same. And sometimes the lack of healing can take on tragic dimensions that precipitate a genuine crisis of faith.

Why, then, are some not healed? The most straightforward answer for this perplexing question is “I don’t know”. I wish, desperately so, that every single person who sought healing prayer was instantaneously and totally heal. But it simply does not happen that way. Some are, and we thank God." 

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One thing to consider…..

If God has determined that (Jane Doe) will decide to follow Christ in 2019, then God has also determined the births of the people who will share the gospel with her and the prayers offered on her behalf. 

As C. S. Lewis explains: The event [in question] has already been decided—in a sense it was decided “before all worlds.” But one of the things taken into account in deciding it, and therefore one of the things that really cause it to happen, may be this very prayer that we are now offering. . . . My free act [of prayer] contributes to the cosmic shape. That contribution is made in eternity or “before all worlds”; but my consciousness of contributing reaches me at a particular point in the time-series. 

Again, God determines both the ends and the means, including the prayers we offer. And he’s ordained his interventions to be in response to faith-fueled petitions. Put simply, God gives us the privilege of including us in his work.

If our understanding of God’s providence leads us to pray less, then we need to rethink our understanding of God’s providence. There are events that will not happen, souls that will not be saved, and relationships that will not be restored unless we pray for them. Our prayers make things happen.

That insight should cause us to not give up on prayer.