Page 71 - Psalms Ebook

the end. No question about that. He is God; He is sovereign; He reigns.
But here is the truth. God ordains the end, but He also ordains the
means to the end. In other words, God has chosen His will, but He has
also chosen the way to get His will done. He has as much ordained
that I would pray as He has ordained what He would do in answer to
my prayer, in answer to your prayer. God has ordained that we live, but
He has also ordained that we eat our breakfast and our supper and that
we rest and exercise. There is a means to the end.

In Psalm 104 we read how God provides for the animals – chipmunks
and squirrels and birds and so on. It says in verse 27, “Thou dost give
them in due season and what Thou dost give them they gather.” There
is two sides to it. God gives it, but they have to gather it. He does not
drop nuts in the squirrel’s mouth. He does not drop a worm in the bird’s
beak or berries in the bird’s nest. “That which Thou giveth them they
gather.” He has ordained the end that we should eat. He has ordained
the means that we should work. And so there is the means and the end.
The end is God’s will, but so is the means. And prayer is the means by
which God will do certain things that He will not do if man does not
pray.

Let me give some illustrations of this. In Genesis chapter God promised
Abraham that He was going to make a great nation out of him. That was
God’s will. That was His plan. But a few generations later in Exodus
we read how the children of Israel sinned, dancing and sacrificing before
the golden calf? God got very angry and said I promised to make a great
nation, but now you have sinned the sin of the golden calf and I am going
to renege on my promise.

He looked at Moses, and He said, Moses, I am going to make a great
nation out of you. And do you know what Moses did? The Bible says
that Moses went and prayed to the Lord. You can read it in Exodus
chapter 32. He went and prayed, and it was almost like he was arguing
and reasoning with God. He said, You cannot do that! People are going
to be watching You. What about your reputation. If You do that, You
will have a bad testimony. Then this strange verse. Exodus 32:14,

“So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He
would do to His people.”

Now did Moses, by praying, change God’s mind? Was God really
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