God is omniscient. He knows everything—past, present, and future. He knows what will happen to you from the moment of your conception to your death. His knowledge and understanding are all encompassing and limitless. But what does that mean for our prayer?
“If He already knows what is going to happen to this person that’s very sick, and you pray for them or tens of millions of people pray for this individual,” asked Don, then why should we still bother with praying? Is it a waste of our time?
Patrick countered by saying, “God knows what would have happened to that person if you didn’t pray for him. And because you do pray for him there’s a different outcome. Now God knows from all eternity what the outcome will be but He also knows what the outcome would have been had you not prayed for him.”
Furthermore, God Himself instructs us to pray.
“Why would Jesus tell us repeatedly to pray and ask the Father for the things that we need? Jesus said He already knows what you need, but ask Him anyway. Why would Jesus say that? It would be either deceptive or it would be superfluous if it had no bearing on anything. If our prayers had no bearing, either Jesus is lying to us or He’s telling us something frivolous and meaningless that doesn’t really matter anyway. And of course we don’t believe that about Jesus,” explained Patrick.
A simple way to prove the theory that our prayers can change things is by looking at repentance. Jesus told us that unless we repent we would all perish. “So in other words, … the destiny of every human being would be eternal separation from God if it weren’t for the fact that He would forgive those who asked for it,” said Patrick.
If we, by our own free will, choose to repent, our story changes and our inevitable damnation becomes a destiny to heaven. “The prayer of the person who says, ‘Lord, please forgive me,’ that’s what changes things,” Patrick explained.
Keep on praying, keep on asking God for what you need and thanking Him for the blessings He has given you! Prayer really does change things.
Tune in to The Patrick Madrid Show weekdays at 8-11am CT only on Relevant Radio.
