It is important to understand from Scripture that God's sovereignty works through His ordained means, which include His promises and our prayers.
Yes, the Lord has predestined who shall be saved from before the world began. But He did not merely predestine the eternal destinies of each person, but has ordained that we arrive at our predestined ends through the means of everything that happens in this life.
Some hold to a fatalistic view of predestination -- which is heretical and grossly unbiblical. It is as if we are not to plead with God, especially in line with His promises, to us and our children, for our nation and land, for His kingdom to come and will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
No Christian should hold to such wickedness. While that is often straw-manned as the "Calvinistic doctrine of predestination", neither Calvin nor any other Reformer, Puritan, etc., held to such a position.
Rather, along with Scripture, we recognize that we are to keep seeking, asking, and knocking, in our prayers and labors for the Lord, and that He promises to answer those prayers that are in accord with His will. But this is only if we are earnest and diligent and believe He is truly the God who answers prayer.
No, this does not mean the answers we receive are always precisely what we desire. Further, the Scriptures make clear that due to our sin (past or present), and due to our ignorance/praying for the wrong things (not according to God's will), our prayers may be hindered, not answered, etc.
But that should only make us all the more zealous to live godly lives, to plead with God in prayer, to cling to His promises, and to believe that as we do so, He will answer our prayers, graciously, and bless us greatly in Him. And He will do this, all according to His predestined purposes. For even our fervent prayers are fore-ordained by Him. Nothing escapes His sovereignty.
This is a great comfort, not a great fear. The alternative is to say that things God did not intend/fore-ordain, in any sense, happen all the time, and God is only a reactionary God. No, God is sovereign, and we can trust Him in His sovereign goodness, to do what is right. Further, we are not left to wonder what is right. He reveals that to us in His Word, and we are to pray in accord with His will, plead for sinners to come to salvation, plead for our own and other's growth in godliness, and persist in prayer to God that His kingdom will grow on this earth and spread like leaven.
These are all things that God has promised in His Word, and commanded us to pray for. He is mighty, willing, and able to answer prayer, to save sinners by giving them new life and bringing them to the point of faith and repentance. God's sovereignty does not run counter to the labors of His people. God's sovereignty includes all things, and so of course includes the actions of His people, and the actions of all sinners.
Do you desire to serve the Lord more faithfully? Do you desire to be more productive for the sake of your family, church, or work? Do you desire to see friends and loved ones saved? Do you need your daily bread, and long for your nation to be delivered from evil? Go to the God who answers prayer, through the Son who has forgiven you of your sins, in the power of the Holy Spirit who has been poured out on you. And you will find, more and more, that God will answer your prayers, blessing you above and beyond what you could ever imagine.
Luke11:5-13: And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? 8 I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for [e]bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
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