Do My Prayers Do Anything?

pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Not too long ago a friend of mine who is still learning about Reformed Theology made this very insightful statement, “I feel that in the Armenian perspective my prayers do something or work with God but in the Calvinist perspective if God is going to save them, he’ll save them, so I pray because God says to pray but that’s as far as it goes.”

My friend’s question was sincere. He has a genuine heart to see his friends redeemed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Do his prayers for them make a difference from the perspective of Reformed theology?

Don’t we all, especially us who live in the West want to know that if we give our time and energy to something that it’s going to matter? 

Let me just say, whether you’re Armenian or Calvinist in your theology, God doesn’t always answer your prayers according to your desires no matter how sincere they may be, but He does always answer them.

There is a vast ignorance concerning Reformed Theology that needs to be honestly explored instead of parroting what other people, whether pastor or parent has said about Calvinism. Just because someone says they are a Calvinist doesn’t by default mean they do not pray or share the Gospel with people because God’s gonna save whoever He wants to anyway. That opinion is an extreme minority of Calvinists known better as hyper-Calvinists. John Calvin was not a hyper-Calvinist. The term Calvinist and the 5 points of Calvinism didn’t come into existence until after John Calvin had died, but I digress. 

If you are Reformed in your theology or are considering the Doctrines of Grace, do your prayers matter?

I would begin by saying that we should first see our lives in light of God’s infinite existence. What I mean by that is that all we do is according to God’s divine will so when we pray it is according to His will. 

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Th 5:16–18).

Second, not only do we pray because we’re commanded to, but we pray following Christ’s example and His command. 

Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity and while fully God He was also fully man and He prayed often. He taught His disciples to pray (Matt 6:9-13). 

The Apostle John wrote:

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him (1 Jn 5:14–15).

Jesus commanded His disciples to stay alert and pray while He was with them in the Garden of Gethsemane. At that time He prayed to the Father with great agony of heart as He was preparing to go to the cross (John 17). 

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Mt 26:39).

Jesus asked for the judgment at the cross to be removed, but the Father didn’t remove it. We ask God to save the souls of others and sometimes the answer is “no”. Like the judgment at the cross, salvation of man was decreed before the foundation of the world. 

…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will (Eph 1:4–5).

So why did Jesus pray if the Father’s answer had already been decreed?

Prayer is worship to God. One, because He commands us to pray. Two, because prayer acknowledges His sovereignty. Three, acknowledging His sovereignty expresses our humility and dependence on Him. Four, prayer is the means by which we engage in an active relationship with God. Five, as we pray for others, even though we don’t know what the outcome will be, but God does, our prayer for them works to sanctify us. Six, when we pray to God and for others we are fulfilling the two greatest commandments. 

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Mt 22:37–40).

You will find that throughout church history that Calvinists were dedicated to prayer, seeking the hand of God, believing they were asking for His will and trusting Him to respond. 

One example would be the preaching of Charles Spurgeon. It is documented that while he preached to thousands there were hundreds down in the boiler room of the church who were praying for him and for God to move to save souls.

Before Spurgeon, the Puritans of whose feet he was discipled from the thousands of books he read, believed that prayers were “laid up” with God to be answered in His time. Their commitment to prayer and the hope that God would answer those prayers in due time was directly related to their overwhelming acceptance of postmillennial eschatology. Thomas Goodwin’s The Return of Prayers exemplifies this:

There is a common treasure of the church, not of their merits, but of their prayers. There are bottles of tears a-filling, vials a-filling to be poured out for the destruction of God’s enemies. What a collection of prayers hath there been these many ages towards it! And that may be one reason why God will do such great things towards the end of the world, even because there hath been so great a stock of prayers going for so many ages, which is now to be returned.

 Works of Thomas Goodwin, Vol.3, 365-6.

Regardless if you are Armenian or Calvinist, you are commanded to pray. Your prayers matter. Not because you bend God’s will, but rather because by praying you worship and love God and love your fellow man.