Bring no more futile sacrifices. - Isaiah 1:13
Reformed Christians will look at the title of this post and cringe if not outright object. How could prayer ever be futile? The idea is almost incomprehensible. And I might join them in condemnation of such a theological position if it weren’t for the words of Isaiah. “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.” - Isaiah 1:15.
For clarification, let’s review who it was exactly that Isaiah’s prophecy was directed at. Isaiah 1:2-4 tells us that it was the people of Israel that God had named as rebels to His grace.
“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider.”Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward.” The very nation God had chosen for His own had turned their backs on Him. And as we have read, who or what the children of Israel prayed to was not the Biblical God of Scripture. And herein is an important similarity between the people of Israel and unbelievers in general. They failed to recognize Him and glorify Him as God. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” - Romans 1:18-21.
So who, in fact, are these foolish hearts praying to? They may as well kneel down before a brick, a fencepost, a stone or a tree or any other idol of their imagination, and pray to it! How many times I have heard unchurched people talk about offering a prayer for a family member or friend in need. And to be fair, there are a great many so-called Christians who, like the unchurched, refuse to acknowledge the holy God of the Bible, replacing Him with a contrived and cleverly designed god of their own making. A malleable god without anger who they “prefer” to pray to, a god they are more comfortable with. In either case, the god these people have chosen to pray to is a false god, a toothless god, a god without power, a mere idol.
So why would such behavior anger the holy God of Scripture? “And God spoke all these words, saying: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” - Exodus 20:1-6.
Clearly, the words of Isaiah now come into focus and describe both a time and circumstance when such prayer is futile. How then can we be sure our prayers are being heard by the one and only God who has to power to answer them? And what of the answer? What if it’s not what we prayed for? What if the outcome isn’t the outcome we prayed for? “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” - 1 John 5:14. This then is the key to answered prayer: asking according to God’s will, not our own! And how can we know God’s will? God’s revealed will is given to us in the Bible. This is why reading and studying the bible is so important because without it we cannot know God’s revealed will for us.
To have our prayers answered we must first acknowledge the one true living God of the Bible; acknowledge and believe in His son, Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior; acknowledge and accept the conviction and chastening of the Holy Spirit with a heart humbled in repentance. Then and only then will our prayers be heard by the triune God who can answer them. Without this all prayer is futile.
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