Does God Need Our Prayers?

If God is omniscient, why do we need to make our requests known to him in prayer? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi there and happy Friday. This is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. You're listening to the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

At 833-THE-CORE, that's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, you can watch us on YouTube right now. See Pastor Adriel in the studio as he answers questions.

You can go to YouTube and also you can send us a message that way. And you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, we heard from one of our international listeners.

Her name is Hari, and let's hear what she has to say. I just want to know if Christians, when there is a civil war in a country, in the same country, do Christians need to take sides or do they just need to stay away from politics and pray for both sides? Thank you.

Bye bye. Well, prayer is always a good thing, especially in conflicts like this. I don't know that we need to say that Christians need to do something in particular in a situation like that. And I also don't know that it's necessarily always wrong to participate in something like that. I mean, this is a very complex question. Now, of course, you think about Jesus' interaction with soldiers, centurions in the New Testament.

It didn't seem like he called them to renounce their roles, their jobs. And so in that sense, I think that there's nothing wrong with Christians being in the military, that kind of a thing. We live in this society, and sometimes it's referred to as the two kingdoms.

You have this sort of civil government and institution, which is this legitimate institution in the world today. You think of places like Romans chapter 13. And yet we are also citizens, first and foremost, of the kingdom of heaven. Paul talks about this in the book of Philippians. And so we have this complex relationship to these two kingdoms, if you will. And are there instances, are there times where Christians might engage in warfare in that sense as a part of the civil kingdom? Well, yes.

But this is a very complex question, Hari, and I would say it really is something that needs to be examined, depending on what is it that's taking place and what is it that people are actually fighting for. And so I'm sorry I can't give you more than that. I think we need more information. So I appreciate your question, and thank you for giving us that call. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, our phone lines will be open for the next 20 minutes or so. So hop on the phone, give us a call. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

Here's a voicemail we received from one of our listeners in Austin, Texas, named Stacy. My sister struggled for years with infertility, and she didn't get pregnant until I quit praying about it. Now my nephews are both 10 years old.

They're in great health, and that's very nice for them. But I was wondering, does something in the universe need our prayers, and if God's going to do what he wants to do anyway, why bother? Thank you.

Yeah. Well, you know, I think some people have a very incant—there are two, I think, errors that we can have when we think about prayer. One is this idea that we're sort of bending God's will through our prayers, that it's our prayers that are changing God's mind. We believe that God is omniscient, that he knows all things, that everything happens according to the counsel of his will, and yet I think embracing those views, the opposite danger is that we have this sort of fatalistic view of prayer, that prayer just doesn't matter. God is going to do whatever he wants, so then we probably shouldn't pray when in reality, throughout the New Testament and throughout the Bible, we have these exhortations to pray and to pray persistently. That is not to give up, and I think one thing is really interesting.

C.S. Lewis talks about this in his book, The Screwtape Letters. He says that one of the devil's tactics is to attack us with this sort of heads-eye-win-tails-you-lose argument with regard to prayer. So we're praying for something, and we're seeking the Lord about it, and it seems like God doesn't answer, and so we think, see, petitioning God with our prayers just doesn't matter. Or if God does answer that prayer, if something does happen, what oftentimes the devil will do is he'll point out some sort of natural thing that maybe led to this thing occurring, this thing happening, and then us again concluding, well, I guess my prayer didn't matter. We have to realize that God answers our prayers in his own way and in his own timing, and he has ordained that the way in which he's going to accomplish his sovereign rule and work in the world today, Stacey, is through the prayers of his people. And so those prayers that you prayed for your sister for many years, God answered those prayers, it sounds like, and you should give him thanks for answering those prayers, now having been answered 10 years ago.

Give thanks to the Lord for that. Now, maybe he didn't answer them in the timing that you were expecting or hoping that he would answer them, but the Lord nevertheless did answer your prayers. So we ought to give thanks to the Lord for those occasions where it's very clear that he does answer the prayer. And then when we don't have the answer right away that we want or where he doesn't say yes to whatever it is that we're requesting, we humbly say, Lord, you know best what we need as your children, and we trust in him. So we have to avoid those two pitfalls though with prayer, thinking that we're changing God's mind and then thinking that prayer does not matter. No, we realize that our prayers do matter because God uses them to accomplish his purposes, his sovereign purposes in the world today.

And of course, God's timing may be mysterious to us, and that's something we have to grapple with. Adriel, I know several friends of mine who keep prayer journals, and it's amazing when they go back and they say, I was praying for this, and maybe it didn't occur right away. But at some point, oftentimes God did answer their prayers, and it can be just so comforting to go back and read those things that you were praying for, because sometimes we forget. We forget, I was earnestly praying for this, it never happened, and then maybe it did at some later point. It's like, wow, that was my prayer.

Absolutely. I think that's such a great practice for Christians to have, Bill, because it is. It's a faith builder when you're able to look back at the prayers that you were praying ten years ago, five years ago, and see, oh wow, look at how God has been at work in this situation or in that situation.

So I think it's really a good thing to do. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. When it comes to prayer, we should be praying for our parents if they are still alive, and we actually have a wonderful book that focuses on that. It's Chelsea Stanley's book, Five Things to Pray for Your Parents, and we'd like to make that available to you. I don't know what your relationship with your parents is like, but I do know that God calls all of us to pray for each other and to pray for our parents.

That's something that we don't often think about. Chelsea Stanley's book, Five Things to Pray for Your Parents, will give you just some really beautiful and practical things that you can be praying for your parents, for your family, so get ahold of this resource. You can go to our website and find that at corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

Look for Five Things to Pray for Your Parents. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers for Chelsea Stanley's book. You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 833-843-2673. Let's go to Barney in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Barney, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Well, I've been a Christian 39 years, and I was raised in the Church of Christ, my parents and Baptist, my grandparents. My question is, and I've settled it except for one issue, is that once saved, always saved. I know the Bible says nobody can pluck the other's hand. I agree, but can we pluck ourselves out of His hands, because we have a free will?

Yeah. There are so many different views on this, and of course there are some people who think, well, there are sins that you can commit that will remove you from the Father's hand, if you will, and then there are others who say, well, there's nothing you can do, no sin that you can do that will cause you to lose your salvation, but if you choose to walk away from the Lord, then you will be lost. Now, of course, we do have in the Bible this sort of category of apostasy, Barney, and that refers to someone who really knows the faith, who maybe has had an experience of the things of the Lord, and yet despite knowing the truth, they turn away from it. This is how Peter describes the false teachers, for example, in 2 Peter 2 and following.

They had a knowledge of the truth. They had received this holy commandment that God had given to them, and then they denied Christ and turned away from Him, and that's a reality. There are people who do that, and I would say they were never saved to begin with. I think that an individual can have a deep understanding of the things of the Lord in one sense, know about Christ and Christianity, and maybe live in the church and maybe live a long portion of their life in the church or their whole life in the church, and yet despite that, still, they have not laid hold of the hope of the gospel for themselves.

Maybe they've sort of dressed themselves up a little bit with religion, but they haven't laid hold of Christ for them, and so they don't have this vital relationship with Jesus. I don't think that someone who is truly born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, can sin away their salvation or would walk away from the faith in a way that would forever compromise their eternal state, that kind of a thing. Do we struggle as believers?

Yes. Can there be periods of grievous sin that has consequences? Yes, and even a sense of the loss of God's presence and the joy of the Holy Spirit, that quenching of the Holy Spirit, yes, I think that we can experience that as true Christians, and yet the ember of faith, if you will, is always there, and God continues to work in us and to draw us closer to himself, to sanctify us so that we persevere in faith and are preserved ultimately by the grace of God. And of course, the passage that you were alluding to or referring to was one from John chapter 10, where Jesus says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. And isn't that such a comfort to know that if you believe in Jesus, if you've trusted in Him, you belong to Him, that you are resting secure in the hands of Almighty God, that no one can snatch you out of those hands, that you hear the voice of the Chief Shepherd, Jesus himself, and we follow Him.

And so, Barney, thank you for that question. May the Lord bless you and keep you. That is such a comforting verse, Adriel, and I think so many of our listeners do often ask that question. And just to keep going back to God's word and Jesus's word to us, that we don't have to fear that, that no one can snatch us out of His hand, and we are eternally His once we trust in Him.

That is such an awesome comfort. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, we have about 10 more minutes left. You can get through on the phone right now and talk to Pastor Adriel live. Here is the number. It's 833-843-2673. You want to spell it out on your phone?

That's 833-THE-CORE. So give us a call right now for the next 10 minutes or so. Let's go to Laverne in St. Louis, Missouri. Laverne, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Oh, thank God I got you. Thank you, Jesus. My question is, it was a statement. When my daughter was three years old, my ex-husband said that I love, let me go more than I love Jesus Christ. And I fell down on my knees and asked God to save my child, and He did save my child. But it took me 30 years to get to my ex-husband to ask him if he really believed that. And did he, you know, did he know he said that and, you know, to try to repent for it, but he was so angry and mean and hateful to me.

He never, he never did that. And now, so we have a granddaughter, which my daughter never wanted children, but she have a granddaughter. I have a granddaughter now and he is bringing that. I think that he's bringing that in because he lives in Mexico.

He's a nurse down there now and he drove from Atlanta to there and she was so proud of that. But she's never addressing what the issue is that I've been doing all these years asking him and he would just walk away or hang up on me and stuff like that. So what I'm asking now is that how do I get, you know, I know God saved my child and she's in the Lord and everything, but with him, I don't want him to bring anything on my grandchild. Laverne, your concern is one that many of us have as parents and then also as grandparents. You know, we want to see our children and our grandchildren know Jesus and walk with Jesus. And the fear is, you know, outside influences and even outside influences from people who are close to us, even family members.

And in this situation, it would be, you know, her grandfather. And I like that you said, you know, I know the Lord saved my child because it really is a work of the Holy Spirit, isn't it? And so I would say in the same way that you would get on your knees and pray for your child, pray for your grandchildren as well and entrust them to the Lord.

It is a sad thing, a tragic thing when we say it. I think a lot of people just don't understand how important this is. You know, because I think for many people, they think, well, gosh, my children are the most important thing in the world. I don't see how I could love God more than my children. And you think of what Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, in Matthew chapter 10, verse 37. Very strong words.

Listen to this. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Now, of course, I don't believe that what Jesus is teaching here is that we should just mistreat or neglect our children, our spouse, our parents, that kind of a thing.

Absolutely not. He's saying, look, our relationship with God, our love for God should be such that it causes everything else, every other love in our life to pale in comparison. And, in fact, when we love Jesus faithfully, we actually love each other better, including our children.

And a lot of people don't understand that, and so they put their children before God, and as a result, I think, neglect their children in a way that they shouldn't have in terms of not introducing them to the Lord and the things of the Lord. But the hope that you have is not in anything except for the work of God in the life of your grandchildren. And continue to pray for your ex-husband, that the Lord would soften his heart to see the fact that we need to love God more than anything else in this world that God calls us to, and that we can, because He sent His Son to lay down His life for us so that we might follow Him. But may the Lord bless you, and you know what I want to do right now, Laverne, is just pray for you and also for your grandchild, that the Lord would be at work in her. And so, gracious Father, thank You for my sister Laverne, thank You, Lord, for the life of faith that she's lived, for calling her to Yourself, that she's able to see just the priority of faith, the priority of a relationship with You. And I pray for her, for her family, and in particular, Lord, for her grandchildren, that You would be working in their lives. God, that You would do a mighty work, drawing them to Yourself, even from a very young age, causing them to understand Your great love for them in the Gospel of Your Son, Jesus.

And would You be with her ex-husband as well, softening his heart and being with him, and opening his eyes to see his need as well. And so, we thank You, Lord, and we look to You with hope, in Jesus' name. Amen. God wants us to pray for our family members, whether that's our kids, our grandkids, even our parents. And we actually have a wonderful book on that topic, which we'd love to make available to you. We mentioned this earlier in the program.

It's called Five Things to Pray for Your Parents by author Chelsea Stanley. If you go to our website at corechristianity.com forward slash offers, you can learn more about that. Let's go to Kim calling in from Marshall, Texas. Kim, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, God bless you, Adriel and Bill.

Thank you so much for what you do. My question is this. I want to get an idea how you feel about something regarding prescriptions and medications, regarding mental health. I've seen a lot of arguments about people saying that we should be relying solely on God for healing in that area, not on pharmaceuticals or medical treatment. And I actually just think that we have finite minds, and we should not limit God in any way on how He chooses to heal people, whether it's through pharmaceuticals, since He created all the ingredients anyway, or the wisdom that He could give doctors. What is your take on that?

How do you feel about that? Kim, yeah, well, I think we have to realize that the mind is a part of the body, and our bodies can break down. And because of the fall, you know, the fall has affected every part of our bodies, including our minds. And that's why we have issues like mental health issues. And in the same way that, you know, if I fell down and broke my leg, and I just said, well, you know, I need to rely on the Lord for this.

I'm not going to go to the doctor, I'm not going to get a cast on, that kind of a thing. You know, people would say, hey, you know, that's great that you're praying for healing for your leg, but you probably should go to a doctor because you need a cast, that kind of a thing. Well, I think it's important that we realize that mental health issues are significant real issues. The answer isn't always just, well, you need to pray more and read your Bible. And I think too often in the church, people have heard that. People who are really wrestling with serious mental health issues have been told, well, you need to do more prayer, you need to read the Bible more, that kind of a thing. I'm not saying that those things are unimportant, but I do believe that it's important that we also involve medical professionals and doctors.

And Bill, I know that you're one of those professionals. So, I mean, I'd love to hear your insight on this as well. I just love what Kim said, that God reveals himself. And we talk about this a lot on this program.

God reveals himself through his words in scripture, and also he reveals himself in nature. And as Kim pointed out so well, that could be in the medications, you know, the ingredients of those medications, the wisdom of the doctors. And we certainly wouldn't tell a diabetic, don't take insulin, just, you know, pray about it and read the Bible more and God will heal you because that person will likely die.

And so, yes, Kim, I think you're right on target. And I do believe God can use mental health professionals and medication to help people with things like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia. You bet. So if you hear a pastor saying, that's not of God, I would strongly disagree.

Yeah, and I would too. It really gets at what we sometimes refer to as the doctrine of common grace, Kim, that God can work in and through these things. I mean, just because these doctors or these scientists aren't necessarily Christians, that kind of thing doesn't mean that we have to reject what it is that they're saying. Now, does that mean that we don't also have to be discerning?

No, we do have to be discerning. But there are many, I think, blessings that we've been able to partake of as Christians just because of, you know, God's common grace in the world today and the advancements in science and the understanding of the mind and so on and so forth. And so I think we have to really take mental health and mental illness seriously.

And a part of that is being able to listen to what many of the experts are saying and being okay with some of the prescriptions that are given, you know. And so I appreciate your question, and may the Lord bless you. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez.

We received this email from one of our listeners named Rudy. Rudy says in 1 Corinthians 6-3, what does Paul mean when he says, Do you not know that we will judge angels? Is he talking about us, and how are angels going to be judged?

He is. And in the context there of 1 Corinthians 6, really the Corinthians were being rebuked by the apostle Paul because they were failing in their relationships with each other within the church. They were suing one another, Paul says. And so he uses this as a sort of something to point out, to say, look, we're going to judge angels on the last day at the final judgment. Now what that's going to look like, we're not given a lot of information. We're given a lot in scripture to highlight what that's going to look like, or what that judgment is going to look like. But we are going to be given this great responsibility as the people of God to participate in the judgment of angels.

And so that's something that we know is true. I think, again, the focus there in 1 Corinthians 6 is, because that's the case, we need to be able to get along with one another within the church. That's the big practical takeaway here is, rather than fighting with one another, taking each other to court, suing one another, except being wronged, Paul says there in 1 Corinthians 6, forgive one another and encourage one another in the Lord, because God has blessed us and he's given us these great privileges, many of which we're going to be able to see there on the last day in heaven. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar. Or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.