Why Pray For People If They Have Free Will?

Dr. Leighton Flowers, Director of Evangelism and Apologetics for Texas Baptists, answers a listener-submitted question asking why we should pray for God to save people if the decision rests on their free will?

[tasmanwalker]

This is a great little teaching. It has practical application to evangelism. I think many people wonder how to pray for those who do not know Christ. You have given some wonderful suggestions.

[robertrawlinsii]

Why pray if all is predestined? It would just be a exercise in futility. I always tell people who try to push predestination on me that God must have predestined me to believe in free will.

[gospeldgeek]

I like to think God gives people some kind of road to Damascus moment. People can still freely choose to accept or reject Him after that.

[beowulf.reborn]

Ironically, part of the reason we pray is to get our own free wills out of the way. Because, despite what Calvinists might think, free will is not a superpower, and in fact, can more often than not be a hindrance.

If we rely on our own wills, and our own wisdom, we can be the very thing preventing someone from hearing what they need to hear in order to be saved. So when we pray for God to save someone, and to prepare the way, etc, oftentimes we are praying that God will use us, giving us the right words to say, bringing to mind the Scriptures that will be most impactful at that time, etc.

God can also answer our prayers for others, by raising up laborers for the harvest; by breaking down spiritual strongholds we might otherwise not be aware of; by preparing the person through their circumstances so that when we reach out to them our words have more impact; so on, and so forth.

What doesn't make sense, is praying for God to save someone, if Calvinism is true, and the person we're praying for is either elect (and will be saved regardless of our prayers), or worse, they are the non-elect, and praying for their salvation is actually contrary to the "secret will" of God.

[BraydenRoss]

I love these shorter quick topic videos!

[caonexpeguero]

The real question would then be... Why pray for someone's salvation if they have been already rejected by God before the foundation of the world?

[jackshadow]

True free will is the ability to never sin. The will of every human who has ever lived, aside from Jesus, is enslaved to sin and is not free. We all have will, but not free will. We all need to be changed and convinced to embrace the truth of Christ. The truth will set you free.

[LegBuilder]

Why pray for people if they don’t have free will is a better question.

[davepound]

I have personally never heard this as an argument against free will, but for someone who does I would say two things...

1. If God predetermines someone's salvation before the dawn of time (randomly) then there is definitely no reason to pray for their salvation because it has already been decided and I have no ability to effect their life and nothing that happens now matters at all. Essentially no prayer matters because everything has already been decided.

2. When I am praying for the salvation of my friend or co-worker or family member or whoever I believe God is changing my heart as much as anything else. So many people have fears and trouble sharing their faith, but we pray for the words, we pray for the opportunities, we pray for the wisdom, we pray God will soften their heart, we pray that they will have eyes to see and ears to hear. The decision is up to them to accept the word just like it is up to us to speak it, but our prayer is to help us give it and for them to receive it.

As a pastor and missionary I teach people that ultimately we are only accountable to share the gospel, pray for the ones we are sharing with, and live it out in our lives, the rest is between them and God. Ezekiel was given a similar command to warn the people of Israel of their sin or else it was on his head (3:18). We cannot force anything and I would not want to, but to be in prayer is a gift which helps us and can effect them through God's time and power in the Spirit.

[PETERJOHN]

God often brings us into hardship or difficulty in order to evoke a sense of need. I have even seen wayward Christians involved in serious accidents when God was trying to get their attention.

[dronelocations]

Why preach ‘repent or perish’ when the non-elect can’t repent and the elect can’t perish?

[DouglasCouto]

Matthew 9:37-38

37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Immediately after this, the Lord Jesus sends out the disciples on a mission.

As Dr. Flowers said, whenever we pray for the Lord to do something on earth, we should pray that he would do it through us or use us, in some fashion, for the glory of His name. Or, at a minimum, we should pray that the Holy Spirit would position our hearts in a posture of submission, ready to move when He moves.

[robertmcvicar]

Being born again is supernatural spiritual experience. Not of the will of man. This is why I have to pray for the sinner who is by nature a God hater. I prayed for my Catholic wife and the lord saved her and made her a great Christian. Totally supernatural. Made willing not free will ptl

[alreyindustries]

I was thinking more along the lines of:
If God desires all to be saved…
If He desires it so much He was willing to send His Son to die for that salvation…
If God knows what influences and circumstances would be necessary to change the will of a human, without just causing a change in the will forcefully or however one might put it, but God could influence a person’s will to freely choose Him and I would assume does according to this line of reasoning….
Then, why would He not send influences and circumstances in everyone’s life that would “provoke” their will to freely choose Him and be saved?

Better ask why to pray for salvation if God has predetermined who he will save?

[nikao]

This was very helpful as are most if not all the videos here. I especially like the dream approach, if only that would work on everyone.

[madcow]

If I’m driving down the road I want the builder of the road to post a stop sign so I don’t crash into the ditch at the end of it. What craziness is this that we demand the builder of the road to abandon those driving on it with no signs to direct them to go? It’s because I know I can fall asleep and speed that I demand signs and appropriate rest stops

[primeobjective]

Luke 18:1
"Then Jesus told them a parable to show them they should always pray and not lose heart."

Matt. 9:38
"Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

Calvinist: God uses MEANS.

If all is predestined, what does it matter if a person loses heart, and what does it matter if workers are NOT sent out into the harvest?

"God uses MEANS", is irrelevant when the end-result is people not praying, people losing heart, and workers not being sent into the Harvest.

[truth]

Why pray for a lost soul to be saved? Its because God wants His Children (True Christians) to be co-labourers and have a part in God's plan for the lost. That is how God builds our faith and trust in Him, by us helping bring the truth to the lost. The disciples worked along with Jesus for that very reason. Not that the moment of the lost soul to choose depends on you. It doesn't. But that moment of decision could be delayed. As God may have predestined your service call to earnestly prayer for that person. It could speed up the timing of that choice. But the choice will come with or without you. God wants us to be involved. Heaven is waiting to rejoice with you when one soul turns to Jesus for salvation. It couldn't be clearer than that. Its a shame Calvinists are totally blind to this. Even a small child understands this without explanation. Yet an over educated Calvinist cannot even begin to see it.

[thespurge]

Notice how Dr. Leighton just added to the text of Romans 11:14 because of his provisionist theology and traditions? The text does not say “I pray my ministry to the Gentiles will provoke the WILL of my countrymen”. Then he uses that to continue the argument to say that because Paul prays for God to provoke people’s wills (which it doesn’t say) we can pray for God to provoke people’s wills. Also, Paul is not talking about prayer here but about magnifying his ministry. Look at the context.

This is why I believe so many ppl have such a strawman view of Calvinism and other biblical doctrines. It’s because they twist or misrepresent texts of scripture and build their theology or arguments based of that. This is just one example.