Posted by
Thomas on Thursday, January 18, 2007 7:16:13 PM
In a discussion in the
Corner on the purpose (if any) of petitionary prayer, Iain Murray recalled this quote from C.S. Lewis:
"Can we believe that God ever really modifies His action in response to the suggestions of men? For infinite wisdom does not need telling what is best, and infinite goodness needs no urging to do it. But neither does God need any of those things that are done by finite agents, whether living or inanimate.
He could, if He chose, repair our bodies miraculously without food; or give us food without the aid of farmers, bakers, and butchers, or knowledge without the aid of learned men; or convert the heathen without missionaries. Instead, He allows soils and weather and animals and the muscles, minds,
and wills of men to
cooperate in the execution of His will...
It is not really stranger, nor less strange, that my prayers should affect the course of events than that my other actions should do so. They have not advised or changed God's mind — that is, His overall purpose. But that purpose will be realized in different ways according to the actions, including the prayers, of His creatures."
(Emphasis added.)
In other words, the person who prays does not induce God to act, when He would not have otherwise acted. What's happening is that God is allowing the petitioner to become in effect a co-sponsor of His enactment.