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| Charles H. Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 - January 31, 1892 |
An objection has been raised which is very ancient, indeed, and has a great appearance of force. It is raised not so much by skeptics, as by those who hold a part of the Truth. It is this—that prayer can certainly produce no result because the decrees of God have settled everything and those decrees are Immutable. Now we have no desire to deny the assertion that the decrees of God have settled all events. It is our full belief that God has foreknown and predestinated everything that happens in Heaven above or in the earth beneath—and that the foreknown station of a reed by the river is as fixed as the station of a king—and "the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses." Predestination embraces the great and the little, and reaches unto all things—the question is, why do we pray?
Might it not as logically be asked why we breathe, eat, move, or do anything? We have an answer which satisfies us, namely, that our prayers are in the predestination and that God has as much ordained His people's prayers as anything else. And when we pray we are producing links in the chain of ordained facts! Destiny decrees that I should pray—I pray. Destiny decrees that I shall be answered and the answer comes to me. Moreover, in other matters we never regulate our actions by the unknown decrees of God, as, for instance, a man never questions whether he shall eat or drink because it may or may not be decreed that he shall eat or drink—a man never enquires whether he shall work or not on the ground that it is decreed how much he shall do or how little. As it is inconsistent with common sense to make the secret decrees of God a guide to us in our general conduct, so we feel it should be in reference to prayer and therefore we still pray.
from The Power In Prayer by C.H. Spurgeon
