#STRask - Why Should We Pray If God Already Knows What’s Going to Happen?

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Questions about why we should pray if God already knows what’s going to happen, how the effectiveness of prayer is measured, and whether or not things would have happened the way they did if no one had prayed for them.   Why should we pray if God already knows what’s going to happen? How is the effectiveness of prayer measured—e.g., would Christopher Yuan have been saved if his mother hadn’t prayed fervently?

Welcome back to the hashtag STRSk podcast. And I just want to remind you that I was thinking about this the other day, Greg. I think this is the 10th. I think it's been 10 years since this show started. And of course, the first couple years, Melinda was in my place. Yeah, the co-host. And she made me answer questions in two minutes. Yeah.

And it dinged. That's why there's a ding at the beginning of the show. Someday we'll change that music. But we have so many questions. If you think about it, we've got like at least 100 a year. We've probably got almost 1,000 or around 1,000 episodes. And each episode has two to four questions. That's how many questions we've answered on our website.

So if you have a question that you've been thinking about, go to our website, do a search, find out what we've said about it because we have covered so many things. And yet, we still have so many more to go. So let's get into our questions. All right. Got it. This first one comes from Chad. My son is struggling with prayer. He keeps asking, why should we pray if God already knows what's going to happen?

Okay. This is a fair question, and it's broader than just the prayer issue because a lot of people say, if God knows what's going to happen, then it's going to happen. And therefore, there's no question that it's going to happen. therefore it necessarily is going to happen, and therefore there's no freedom. So it's even more expansive than the concern that Chad's son has raised. There's a philosophical way of explaining this. In fact, I read once again William King's response to this issue,

and he says there's a violation of modal logic and the thinking, blah, blah, blah. Okay, it's kind of hard for the layman to understand that. Here's the simplest way of putting it. Knowing something is going to happen doesn't cause it to happen. Knowing something is going to happen doesn't cause it to happen. And now I'm thinking, it seems to me I've written either a mentoring letter. No, it was also in one of our quick fire solid grounds from last year. The rapid fire, yeah. Yeah, rapid fire solid grounds. I've done a number of them where I'm dealing with these quick, issues, and this is one that came up. And so it's probably in the November, September, October, November, December, January, September or November, solid ground from last year. Quickfire number one or two or three, done four already. Maybe we'll do another one. But the point is that knowledge that something is going to happen does not cause it to happen. Now, I'll give you a kind of a rough and ready illustration. say, well, let me back off. I like to, movies that I like, I like to watch a second time.

And the reason is I'm disappointed in so many movies that I watch. I get one third of the way through and I think, oh, this was a waste of time. And I don't want to be disappointed. And so now, do I know what's going to happen? Yes. How do I know? Because I saw it before. but just because I saw it before and know what's going to happen doesn't mean that my certain

knowledge of what's going to take place in that movie I watched the second pine is causing that to take place. All of those things are taking place based on the choices made by script writers and actors and directors, making free choices. Now, the illustration breaks down because in this case I have already seen the film. and I'm talking about seeing it again, but in a way it's a good parallel. Because the point is, just because I know something is going to happen in the future of the film, doesn't mean I'm causing it to happen.

Will it happen, of course? Absolutely. Of necessity, it's going to happen. But it's not going to happen because it necessarily has to happen that way. This is the funky language, and I even get confused with this, that philosophers use in modal logic. The point is, maybe this is the way philosophers put it there, will help, that the knowledge is temporally prior to the event, but it is not logically prior. God knows what we're going to pray before we pray it, because he's omniscient.

But the thing that he knows is dependent on what we will pray in the future, so that if we were to choose to pray something different, he would know the different thing that we chose to pray. His knowledge of the future isn't causing it. It's actually the event in the future that after a fashion is causing God's knowledge. That's what I mean by logically prior. It is the thing that is the thing responsible for God's knowledge in the past for what's going to happen in the future. So a person's freedom in the broader sense here of this question, a person's freedom is not impaired by the fact that God knows what he's going to do. Even if somebody said, well, then if God knows I'm going to do it, then I have to do it.

Well, no, because he knows it, that means you will do it, but not that you have to. Okay. Now, maybe it's a mindbender a little bit. I'm thinking about this poor son trying to figure all this out. Well, this is why I gave the simple answer, and I'll review that in a minute. it. But if, well, what if I decided to do different? Well, then you would do different in your decision, and God would know different. Okay, it is the action that determines his knowledge, not the knowledge that determines the action. Okay. So the way I said at the beginning is knowing something

doesn't cause it to happen. Even knowing in advance doesn't cause it to happen. The thing that causes it to happen is a personal choice. And the fact of the personal choice in the future is what grounds God's knowledge in the past of it. So, and I go into some detail in the solid ground on this. This is the longer piece that has a section where I talk about this. And it came out last year towards the end of last year. And it's online. The, it is the, there's the advantage, or maybe put it this way, there never was when God didn't know what we were going to pray. So that's why God, he's not confused with everybody praying at once because he's not learning anything. And sometimes, because he knows what we're going to pray, and this might be helpful to Chad's son,

because he knows what we're going to pray, he can put into motion the answer to that prayer before we even pray it because he knows we're going to pray it. So imagine somebody, let's see, praying, okay, so you've got a poor family. There are anecdotes like this that I'm aware of, but just take it as an illustration. You have a poor family sitting down to eat. There's no food. And so we're sitting down. We're going to give thanks to God, and we're going to ask him to provide food.

And then the doorbell rings. And then they open the door, and there's a bag of groceries sitting on the porch. This has happened before. Well, wait, they just finished the prayer. Did the groceries materialize right after the prayer? No. God knew the prayer was going to take place and put it on somebody's heart to buy the groceries and put it on the porch and ring the doorbell right when they were praying and then left. And so because God knows in advance what we will pray and he will respond in many cases to what we're praying, he can put the prayer answer into play even before we pray it.

And that's a big advantage for his omniscience. Maybe that makes more sense, Chad, to your boy. I don't know. Yeah, and maybe it might help to drive. out a little bit that's missing from the way he's characterizing this because he says, why should we pray if God already knows what's going to happen? But if you think about what he's actually saying, it's a little bit more complicated than that. What he's saying is if God knows what will pray and how he answers and how he'll answer, then we don't need to pray.

I think that makes a little more clear because then you can see, no, if he sees how we're going to pray and how he's going to answer, that doesn't mean we don't pray. That just means God knows what we're going to pray. Because we are actually participating in what God is doing. He's using means. He doesn't just, let's let's put it this way. It's kind of like asking an author, why write a story if you already know how it's going to end. That's a good one. The story is part of what he's doing. He's getting to the end through that story, through the actions of the characters, through what they're doing. He hasn't just jumped to the end. There's participation.

So every time we pray, we're participating, even though God knows what we're going to pray, and even though God prompts us to pray certain things, and even though he's doing certain things, we are participating, and God knows what we'll pray, he knows how we'll answer, but that doesn't take us out of the equation. it just means God knows the end from the beginning. That's all it means. So maybe that can help them understand a little more about, if you can just help them understand that we're participating in the story that God is working out

and in the way he responds. And he does know how we'll pray, but that doesn't mean we don't need to pray anymore. Right, right. Okay, so that brings us to a question from Doug. How is effectiveness of prayer measured? For example, would Christopher Yuan have been called even if his mother hadn't prayed fervently? Well, there's two different questions there now. One has to do with the nature of God's sovereign role in salvation.

And people have different ideas about that. You and I share the same understanding of the nature of sovereign grace in a reform sense. That's what it means to be elect or to be chosen. And God does the electing that is effective, and God does the choosing. So, you know, that's a whole mystery about how God is doing the calling. But it does seem that prayer is relevant to that process. Christopher Ewan is a Christian who is deeply invested in the homosexual lifestyle and then was also trafficking in drugs as part of that whole seen and then got busted and went to prison.

And while he's in prison, he became a Christian, but his mom famously was praying, praying. She had a prayer closet, all these. There's a, the whole chronicle is recorded in, out of the far country. Is that his book? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So just the background there.

So what if she hadn't prayed? Well, I, that's like saying, what if, what if somebody witnessed to anybody, would anybody get saved. Well, I guess not many would get saved, but it isn't. What we have to keep in mind is that when God ordains a particular end, he ordains the means to that end. Now, that's not like double talk. You read in the scripture, and you read, for example, I read it not too long go in the book of judges or what, shall I go up against this foe? God, tell me, will I be victorious? Yes, I will give you the victory. Okay, good. Then God says, set an ambush. Now, you might think, well, wait a minute, why set an ambush? God is going to do it. Why do I need to do anything? Let God do

the whole thing. But no, God ordained a means to accomplish that end. So Jesus was supposed to go to the cross 33 years after he was born. Yet as an infant or a child, his father and mother had to take him to Egypt because his life was being threatened by Pharaoh. Wait a minute, God ordained for him to die 33 years later. How could he die by, not Pharaoh, but by Herod, King Heron. But it was a real threat and there was a real action that was necessary as part of the larger plan for God. to accomplish his end. Okay, so there is a kind of mystery about how that all works together. I mean, Paul said, my desire and my prayer for the Jews is for their salvation. So what is that, Romans 9, first couple of verses, I think. And, or maybe it's Romans 10, I'm not sure,

I bearer than witness to save a zeal for God, et cetera. But the, the, so Paul is praying for salvation, though he also advances a very strong understanding of the sovereign grace of God in election and the like. So there's a mystery of how that works together, but they do work together, and they're important, okay? The first part of the question, though, had to do with what I call the calculus of prayer, and I'm not sure how that works. I mean, how many people have to pray for something and how intently and for how long

long before that things happen. That thing happens. I mean, who you've got, Elijah in what First King is 18, after the big event with the prophets of bail, and he slays 700 of these false prophets. And now it's time for the drought to end. And so he prays that it would rain. And doesn't rain. So he hasn't pray again.

No clouds. They got to pray again. And all of a sudden there's a little bitty cloud. and then a thunderstorm. So, all right, why did he have to do that three or four times? I don't know. But that's what I can't figure out either, the calculus of prayer. All I know is that we're supposed to pray and convey our sense of trust in the

father for doing the thing we pray about. You know, I believe, help my unbelief. If you're able, can you heal me kind of thing? Well, yes, I believe you're. able. I'm not sure if he's always going to do it. So we persevere in prayer for that reason. I think what helps us to make sense of this is the idea that prayer is not a method of doing things. So it's not mechanistic. Is that what you mean? Yes. It's not, this is the way we accomplish things. I say words and then these things happen. So now we measure the results of those words

and see if I'm saying the right words at the right time and the right way. That's, I think that sneaks into the way we view prayer. But in reality, prayer is communication with God. We're asking for things from our father. We're asking for certain things. I think he prompts us to pray for certain things at certain times because he wants to answer those prayers and he wants to do certain things. What prayer is doing ultimately, it's kind of. connecting us to God. It's reminding us of our dependence on him. It's an expression of our

dependence and our desire for him. It's a way of communing with God. And it's also a way of bringing glory to God because when we pray for things and he answers, he gets the glory for that. And people can see, oh, that was God doing this because you asked and now, look, he's answered and he's done this amazing thing. So would God have saved Christopher Yuan without having to be? And he's answered. And he's done. his mother pray. I mean, that's kind of a weird question because that was God's plan. He wanted to save him through his mother's prayers so that then they would speak all over the world and God would get the glory for saving Christopher Ewan. So if she hadn't prayed, would he have saved him? No. But God's plan was to save him through the prayers. Right, right. If she hadn't prayed,

God wouldn't have saved him because God didn't purpose to save him. Exactly. Yes, yes. It's all a package. Exactly. This goes back to our previous question, which was about God having, using us or we're participating in what God's doing because he uses means. He doesn't just snap his fingers all the time because he wants people to see who he is. He wants to get the glory so that everyone can know he's God and know he's.

and know he's good and know all these things he's doing because if we weren't praying and he was just working, we wouldn't know he was doing anything. This brings it to our attention and it also lets us participate. And we all know if we've prayed for something and then God moves, that has such a greater impression on us than if just God does something, something happens. And then we're very happy about it. And we can even see that it's something that God would want to happen. It's a completely different experience than when you prayed for it and then you see him work. So that's why he goes about it that way, I think. I know you love all these questions on prayer, Greg, but we got more. It's all right. Well, they're important. But there is a mystery about prayer. And this is why I've said

the first rule of prayer, do you remember? Is to pray. The first rule of prayer is to pray. You know, and I have found that when I haven't prayed for a while, it's always hard to start again. But when I get back into it, it's hard to start when I start that particular time. But then once you start, it gets so much easier. And then once you have a habit of it, it gets so much easier. And you see it becomes more rewarding over time. Yeah, this is a very mundane comparison, but it's kind of like working out. If you don't, you know, jog for months and months the first time you do it, well, man.

But you got to start. And then it gets easier. But normally, every single time, even if you're working out on a regular basis, you start out on your jog. You got to warm up a little bit, you know. And so there's the lactate acid buildup and all that other stuff. And I remember, I think it was John Newton, the famous John Newton, author of Amazing Grace and a spiritual guide to William Wilberforce, right. That said, I am loath to go to prayer, and when I am in prayer, I am loathe to stay.

Now, he was a great man of prayer. I've read two biographical tomes about him, and yet he acknowledges along with everybody else like C.S. Lewis and Tim, Tim Keller, and, you know, just about everybody else who writes on prayers, it's hard. It's a challenge. I get it. All right. Well, we're at a time, but you'll be happy to know, Greg. I have more questions about prayer for you in the next episode. Sounds good. I know you always, you always say, oh, man, I just don't know. I didn't even know how to answer these. And sometimes I feel the same way, too. I've had times when I've, been so much better at praying, and this is a good reminder for me, too. All right, thank you, Doug and Chad. We appreciate hearing from you, and we look forward to hearing your question in the future on X with a hashtag STR Ask or on our website at STR.org. This is Amy Hall and Greg

Kokel for a stand-to-reason.