top of page

InterSections

inform - encourage - unite

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

FFThoughtPP.jpg

Does Prayer Change God’s Will?   Paul Pollard

It was June 1945, in Normandy, France.

​

The wounded soldier lay in the trench all night hoping to be rescued by his band of brothers. The day passed and no help came.

​

Night again. Just him, the pain, and a heavy darkness. It was then he did something he, as a new believer, had only done a few times in recent months. He prayed. He prayed as he had never done before. Just as dawn approached, a familiar, human voice called out, ‘Joe, we’re here to get you!’

What just happened here? Had God predestined long ago that Joe would be rescued, and Joe’s prayer exactly fitted what he had intended to do? Or had Joe’s misery and pathetic prayer for help moved God to change his mind about what would happen?

​

Whether Joe knew it or not, he uttered a prayer of petition to God – a prayer some say is useless because our sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient God already knew Joe’s predicament. Why ask God to do something he already planned to do?

​

Most Christians believe God is good and wishes the best for his creation. So we assume that when we pray, God will answer based on his values and his desire to do what’s best for us. At the same time, we pray everything be done ‘according to his will’ and accept that any prayer not meeting that criterion won’t be answered.

​

Every subject can be sliced, diced, shaken, and stirred until the original issue is forgotten. For us, the question here is, ‘what does the Bible say about changing God’s mind through prayer?’

The starting point is that petitionary prayers are commanded in Scripture (James 5:13–18). We also trust God to do what’s best for us since that’s his nature. We believe he’ll do so without curbing our freedom or violating his values.

​

Importantly, we have examples from Scripture where God did change his mind – ostensibly with prayer as a key factor. In the golden calf disaster in Exodus 32, God was furious with Israel for violating the second commandment not to make idolatrous images (Exodus 20:23). As a result, God intended to consume Israel.

​

At this point, Moses offered a fervent prayer pleading for God to not destroy his people. Moses’ main argument was that if the people were destroyed, it would give the Egyptians ammunition against God. Also, he urged God to remember how faithful Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were and his promises to them. The result? Exodus 32:14 tells us ‘...the Lord changed his mind about the disaster he planned to bring on his people’.

​

The prophet Jonah was commissioned to go to Nineveh and warn a wicked people of their imminent destruction. Instead, Jonah ran the other way. After his adventure with a huge fish, he decided to submit to God’s command and to prophesy to Nineveh after all. Jonah’s message was that in 40 days the city would be destroyed. The people believed that God would do what he said; immediately, a great revival broke out in the city and everyone repented. The text does not say they prayed to God, but most of us would in their circumstances. At any rate, Jonah 3:10 says ‘God changed his mind about the calamity’ he warned he’d unleash upon the city.

​

Whether or not prayer is always involved, Scripture clearly shows that God can change his mind (Jeremiah 18:5–12, Amos 7:1–6). On the other hand, there are some texts (Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29) which state that God doesn’t change his mind. One way to reconcile these texts is to accept that God is generally steady and unchanging but, at his sovereign discretion and compassion, can change his mind and withhold due punishment.

​

A final clear example of God changing his mind because of prayer is demonstrated by King Hezekiah. The problem in the southern kingdom of Judah was that every good king was usually followed by an evil one. Seeing this play out over decades, God decided he would hand his people over to the enemy and let them suffer.

​

Isaiah 37 is a commentary on the action of Hezekiah, who knew God had promised to let his people be destroyed and, in fact, had already begun to do so at the hands of the Assyrians. Isaiah 37 contains the fervent prayer of Hezekiah asking God to spare his people, despite the fact that God had long before promised to destroy them. Isaiah 37:21–35 describes how God changed his mind because of Hezekiah’s prayer.

​

Clearly, Hezekiah recognized the sovereignty of God in his prayer (37:16). But evidently his God was not the stubborn, set-in-stone kind of God some classical theists envisage. God is clearly sovereign (Isaiah 46:8–11; Ephesians 1:9–11) but this does not always keep him from changing his mind when we pray to him.

​

Of course, there is the deeper question as to why God in his sovereignty answers some prayers and not others. That’s beyond the scope of this article. Instead our question concerns whether our prayers change God’s mind. Apparently so, if Scripture carries any weight.

​

In any case, I doubt whether soldier Joe, while laying distressed in the trenches, was questioning if a sovereign God could or would answer prayers contrary to his will. Instead, Joe prayed. Then he was ecstatic when he was rescued and lived to tell the story. Praise be to God!

​

Paul Pollard is a retired professor of Bible at Harding University and a former elder at the College Church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas.     ppollard@harding.edu

bottom of page