Will God deviate from His Master Plan if people pray to Him?

Question

Ok, people, this is another of my simple YES/NO questions.

Can people's prayers exert some influence on God's plan, yes or not????

Answer 1

No. Prayers are simply people's wishes to an imaginary genie in the sky.

Answer 2

NO!

What kind of God would he be if every person with a two dollar prayer book could come along and screw up his plan?

It makes no sense to pray to a God to change anything when everything that occurs is part of this God's grand plan! Why fight it this God has a plan!

It's completely insane and utterly pointless given this God knows everything before it happens but perhaps he's getting a good laugh out of all this!

Answer 3

There is biblical evidence that perhaps yes God will alter portions of His plan, but I do not think that prayers will cause God to finish His Master Plan.

Answer 4

Que Sera! Sera! What will be! Will be!" is a pagan belief that has come into the church under the guise of "predestination" It's fatalism. It's not Biblical. God does have a plan and He included us and our free will in His plan. Just because God planned some things ahead of time, doesn’t mean they are set in stone! If He had set it all in stone, then why would He tell us to ask? Yes, we work with Him in His plan but we can also work against His plan. And sometimes, we can actually change His plan! (Hezekiah did in 2 Kings 20:2). Look at all the people that either changed God’s mind or caused Him to do something because they asked - Hezekiah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elisha, Daniel, Jabez, Rahab, etc. Peter would not have walked on water if he hadn’t asked. Jesus wouldn’t have turned the water into wine if Mary hadn’t asked. The leper wouldn’t have been healed if he hadn’t asked. Blind Bartemeous wouldn’t have been given sight if he hadn’t had asked. The Centurion’s servant wouldn’t have been healed, if the Centurion hadn’t of asked,. The woman with the possessed daughter was told “No” by Jesus when she asked for healing and she changed His mind! She wasn’t even one of God’s people. She had no right or authority to ask for what she did and she moved Jesus to change His mind! Why pray? Because God has chosen to limit Himself and His works here on earth to man. In other words, because He gave the earth to man to rule and co-reign over it under Him, God respects man's decisions. Even his decision to NOT pray. Too many blame God for all the problems here on earth. They don't see just how much power and authority man have been given. We can say Yes to God. We can say No to God. And we can say, "What about this God? How about if we do this?" Mary could have said, "No" to God when He brought His proposition to her about carrying the Messiah. King Saul did say "No" to God through his choices and lost God's plan for his life. Some view submission to God equals being on a very tight leash. They view Him as the Ultimate 'Micro-manager'. Sure He's a God of the details but He's doesn't put us in straight jackets, although there's a few people I wish He would. So they view prayer as a empty duty. They think God’s gonna do what He’s gonna do and they don’t have much of a part to play in God’s will or God’s kingdom. They think wrong! Jesus told His disciples, "Whatever YOU bind...whatever YOU loose" (Matt. 16:19) He said, "Whatever YOU ask..." (Mark 11:24) The key words there are "WHATEVER" and "You". That's a lot of leeway. Why pray? C.S. Lewis once said that asking why to pray is like asking why breathe? Prayer is communication with a real God about real things. It's not some religious duty that's really just an exercise in futility. It's the means by which God's will and our will joined together change the universe. And God gives us a real freedom and place in our relationship with Him. He lets us affect Him and His will. He makes Himself vulnerable to our ideas and wishes and desires. Now, He has the final say but He has given us an authentic part to play. We aren't robots or puppets! I have had prayers answered and He said in the answer to me specifically, word for word, and I quote, "because you asked, I will..." If I hadn't of asked He wouldn't have done what He did. We don't get everything we ask for but that’s no reason to discontinue a life of prayer. God doesn’t get everything He asks of us but He hasn‘t stopped communicating to us.

Answer 5

Yes and No...Yes in the small scheme of things like everyday life. no on the Big Plan. Evil still looses.

Answer 6

I don not think so.

I think prayer is for our benefit and affects our abilities to make good decisions. I dont think God alters the beautiful, orderly physical reality he has created.

Answer 7

No, Divine Plan has been written, it is useless to try and convince otherwise.

Unless in his plan he made sure you prayed. Then that would mean that every action is predetermined and there is no true free will....

Answer 8

People praying to Him IS part of this Master Plan of which you speak. Mind-boggling, isn't it?

Answer 9

peoples prayers will work towards fulfilling the plan as its already been prophecied .. thats the plan ... to accomplish Gods works in the earth through His people ...

Answer 10

NO because you can pray to a cigarette and get the same answers: yes, no, or wait. the cigarette, like god, can't lose, under that situation right there. Yup.