Prayer Series Study Guide: Week 1 Praying to the God Who is Sovereign

Community Group Study Guide — Praying to the God Who is Sovereign
Ephesians 3:20-21

Study Information:
Does prayer even work? Well, that depends on what you mean by “work.” Many of us think of prayer primarily as supplication, which is asking God for our needs or for him to work in a specific way. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6 to bring him our requests, God desires to hear them. We know that prayer is more than supplication, prayer is our human experience of conversation with God where we can bring our needs to God, praise him for who he is and what he has done, and experience his presence, especially in times of suffering. Yet often when we wonder if prayer has any purpose usually it is when we’re wrestling with supplication. Does our prayer change God’s mind? Does he hear our prayers? If God is sovereign, does praying even matter?

Throughout scripture God uses his sovereignty as a reason why we ought to pray. Can you imagine praying to a God who was limited in his power and authority?! Rather, God wants us to understand that he has all power and authority and he is not limited like we are. Paul in Ephesians 3:20-21 even prays “to him who is able to do far more than we can ask or imagine!” God has no limits or boundaries. 

What is God’s Sovereignty?
Psalm 115:3, Matthew 10:29-31
When we speak of God’s omnipotence and prayer we are speaking about God’s power or ability to respond to our prayer. Christian theology holds that God is infinite and not limited like we are and one way this is expressed is having no boundaries in terms of his power. God does not have to conserve his strength or build up his resources to respond to a need like we might have to. God is all powerful, he is omnipotent. 

God’s sovereignty is God’s right to rule. Psalm 115:3 tells us that God sits in the heavens and does whatever he pleases. His right to rule is not threatened by circumstances, feelings, political powers or anything we could imagine as a rival. This means that what happens in the world happens because God allows it to happen. This can lead to some obvious challenges for us to wrestle with, especially around the problem of evil, but could you imagine a world where God was NOT sovereign? That would be a truly scary place. Who would be in charge? Evil? Chance? 

Jesus spoke of God’s sovereignty as a means of assurance of his loving kindness for his people. Notably in Matthew 10:29-31 we’re told that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God’s attention, and that he knows the numbers of hair we have on our heads. We can rest and trust in God because of his power and authority. 

Practicing Prayer to the Sovereign God
Let’s look at four quick categories that God is sovereign over, according to the Bible. 

First, human history. Psalm 139:16 talks about God forming the days in which we live, Joseph told his brothers in the book of Genesis that all that happened to him was part of God’s plan for responding to the famine in Egypt. Nothing happens in the world apart from God’s knowledge and permission. 

Second, our salvation. Ephesians 1:4 tells us that God chose us before the foundation of the world. This is great news because it places our salvation in God’s love. He choose us before we could do anything good or bad. We need a heart change in order to respond to the gospel, and God graciously responded to our sin and brokenness with his grace. 

Third, suffering. God is sovereign over even the hard things in our lives. He is not powerless to respond to our pain and that is actually good news. We can feel as if God must be careless or unloving because of suffering we experience. Much of our suffering can be a mystery like what we read in the book of Job, but God ordains it for our good and promises to use it providentially to form us to be more like Jesus (Romans 8:29). 

Finally, our hearts. God can and does shape our wills to be more like his and often when we pray, this is one of the things God is doing. 

Sovereignty and Prayer
You might say, why pray if God is sovereign? We actually should pray because God is sovereign. God commands us to pray and takes into account our prayers as he governs the universe. God doesn’t look to us for good ideas, but like a loving father he responds to our requests. James tells us that truth when he wrote, “you do not have, because you do not ask (James 4:2).” Jesus likewise commanded us to ask, seek and knock and that God delights to give us good gifts (Matthew 7:7-8). God has the ability and the authority to respond to prayer and that is a great comfort for us and should give us confidence. Likewise, God will only give us what is in alignment to his plan. This is an amazing safety net because God is not just some vending machine in his response to our supplication. Think of all the prayers that God could have answered the way you thought he should but didn’t. As you look back how would things in your life have gone if God did what you specifically asked him to do? Surely we’d all have some regrets if God responded to our prayers the way we originally hoped. Jesus told his disciples, to ask because God knows what you need before you ask (Matthew 6:8). God’s knowledge of our needs should compel us to ask, we don’t have to convince him or prove our needs to him. 

God does respond to prayer; prayer works. As we praise God, express sorrow or ask for him to work we can take confidence in his sovereignty and often God will use that prayer to form and shape our hearts. God shapes our hearts to be more inline with his will, and sometimes God changes our affections. Think about times when you pray for someone you do not like very much or when you ask God to bring people to salvation. In many of those instances we find that God puts it on heart to show compassion to the person we don’t like or that God motivates us to share the gospel or at least look for an opportunity to point to him. Prayer is a great tool to bring our will into alignment with God’s. 

If God didn’t have power or the right to rule then why pray? Instead because he has the power and the right to rule, we can ask for him to work and have confidence that everything that happens is according to his purpose. Likewise, we can look to God to change our hearts. 

At your community group:
Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.

How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week? 

Discussion Questions:
Have you found God’s sovereignty to be a challenge or an encouragement in your prayer life? What are some reasons it can be a challenge? What are some reasons it can be an encouragement?

The study guide listed out four areas God is sovereign over. Why is it good news that God is sovereign over history, salvation, suffering and our hearts?

Jesus in Matthew 10:29-31 comforts fearful disciples by reminding them of God’s sovereignty and providence. What does that passage and Matthew 7:7-8 teach us about God’s heart for his people?

What are some ways you can grow in prayer based on God’s sovereignty this week?