Sovereignty and Stewardship

We had a great discussion the other night at small group about the power of prayer and God's sovereignty. The discussion went along the lines of "If God is sovereign, sees all, and knows the outcome of all things, will praying change the outcome?"

Phillipians 4:6 - 7 tells us:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

1 Thes 5:16-18 further expounds:
"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

As Christians, our connection to God is through prayer. We are told to pray continually with thanksgiving and to present our requests to God. But if the outcome is already known, why bring our requests to God? After all, if He already knows the outcome why bother? The short answer is because we are told to do so. If God commands His followers to do something, we are to obediently comply.
The longer answer is, God knows what is best for us. We are to grow in our walk and faith. The way He builds our faith is through answered prayer. We have been given stewardship over advancing His kingdom and in order to do that, we need to have our faith strengthened. When we ask God for something and He gives it to us, it is uplifting. We are rejuvenated and our walk strengthens.

1 John 5:14-15: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him."

The key in that passage is that what we ask has to be according to God's will.We need to look inside ourselves and make sure what we want is what God wants as well.

God is sovereign. He can see all of time because He is not constrained by time. He knows the outcome to every event before it happens.  He knows what we are going to pray for and He knows if He is going to grant it to us. This does not absolve us of our duty to pray. After all, if we don't ask, we won't receive.

Jesus tell us in Matthew 7:7- 11:
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."
"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

But now we come to the big question. If the outcome is known, does prayer have any effect? I posit that it does. Just because God knows what we are going to pray for beforehand has no bearing on our responsibility to pray. After all, if we don't ask, we won't receive.