Stephen Barkley
All Christians petition God for their needs and the needs of others. Jesus himself encouraged this when he taught his disciples how to pray (Matthew 6:9–13). This simple act of faith raises questions, though. Why should we ask God for anything when he already knows what we need? If God’s working all things together for God, then shouldn’t God give us what we need by default without our asking?
The common response to this is that we pray not for God’s sake, but for ours: prayer forms us. Fair enough. It’s true that prayer serves a therapeutic and spiritually formative purpose in the lives of the pray-er. But doesn’t prayer actually do something?
John C. Peckham confronts this thorny problem head-on in Why We Pray. It seems that petitionary prayer denies one of the following truths about God (12):
- Omniscience. God knows everything.
- Omnipotence. God is all-powerful.
- Omnibenevolence. God always desires the greatest good.
Essentially, if God knows the best possible good, desires that good, and has the power to implement it, then there’s no need for humans to pray.
The answer to this conundrum is found in the subtitle: “the context of cosmic conflict.” Scripture indicates that the world is under the legitimate power of evil, which morally prevents God from acting unless humans release God to act. In his words:
God has committed himself to some parameters or boundaries in the cosmic conflict such that God is morally prevented from bringing about some goods (that God is aware of, otherwise would like to bring about, and possess the sheer power to bring about) unless he is petitioned to do so by an appropriate party or parties. (19)
How does that answer sit with you? If this is true, then our prayers really do matter. If we remain silent, evil may prevail in areas God where wishes to act. On the other hand, if you have a high view of the sovereignty of God, this solution sounds like the back door to denying omnipotence.
Regardless of what you think of Peckham’s solution, the conundrum is real and Christians would do well to think through their understanding of petitionary prayer and its efficacy.
Peckham, John C. Why We Pray: Understanding Prayer in the Context of Cosmic Conflict. Baker Academic, 2024.
