GLEANINGS - GenesisSample

Can we change the mind of God through prayer?

God had decided that ‘enough is enough’ with Sodom and Gomorrah. He was going to destroy them. Abraham pleads before God to not do what He intends to do. By his bargaining, we find that Abraham is trying to change God’s mind. Abraham appeals to both God’s mercy and His righteousness.

God promises him that if He can find 10 righteous people, He will not destroy Sodom. And, of course, we know that God was not able to find those 10 people. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, but God rescued Lot and some of his family members.

While God didn’t change His mind, it appears that Abraham ended up changing his. We find in Genesis 19:27–29 that the next morning Abraham is standing there, watching the destruction and the aftermath, but never once does he question God. He just accepts the fact that God did what He needed to do. The only thing that changed was Abraham’s perspective on God’s destruction of it. And that’s the point.

Prayer changes us, so our desires will line up better with His — so we can have a better appreciation of who God is and what He is doing. God knows everything that’s going to happen before it happens. In the situation in Genesis 18, God knew what He was going to do, even if Abraham wasn’t quite sure. But He also knew that Abraham was going to pray.

When we say, “Prayer changes things,” we think that “WE can do this; all we have to do is pray, and we’ll change things. WE can get God to change His mind. WE can change the course of events so that they’re more favorable for us or the ones we love.” And that’s really the wrong perspective because it should never be about us and what we are doing. It should always be about GOD and what He is doing. ALWAYS.

We should approach prayer with the mindset of inviting God into the situation so that He can make the changes He wants to make in His way. Sometimes that may include changing our minds about what we think God should be doing.

Prayer never begins with man; it begins with God! True prayer is never bringing man's plans to God for Him to bless. God is always the one who proposes. True prayer is God enlisting the partnership of man in carrying out His program.

APPLICATION QUESTION:

Think of some ways in which some of your seemingly unanswered prayers have been answered by God.

QUOTE:

To say that 'prayer changes things' is not as close to the truth as saying, 'prayer changes me and then I change things.' God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Oswald Chambers

PRAYER:

Lord, help me to pray, not with a demanding attitude, but with a submissive attitude, knowing that You have the best for me. Amen