Providence and Prayer: Since God Is Sovereign, Why Pray?
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 6 December 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There would be no use in praying if God were not in control of all things. Today, R.C. Sproul considers why the truth of our sovereign God should motivate us to pray regularly and confidently.
With your donation of an amount, request The Valley of Vision, a book of Puritan prayers to help enrich your own prayer life. You'll also get digital access to R.C. Sproul's video teaching series Prayer and the accompanying study guide: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/4406/donate
Live outside the U.S. and Canada? Request the digital teaching series and study guide with your donation: https://www.renewingyourmind.org/global
Meet Today's Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of media for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, and host of the Ask Ligonier podcast.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In his sovereignty, he has so designed his plan of salvation as to work through the prayers |
| 0:06.9 | of his people. |
| 0:08.2 | And that's why the Bible again and again encourages us, not only encourages us, but commands |
| 0:14.5 | us to be actively involved in prayer. |
| 0:24.5 | Music actively involved in prayer. Have you ever asked the question, what's the point in praying? |
| 0:29.0 | If it's true that God is sovereign over all things, that there isn't even one maverick molecule, |
| 0:36.4 | then why pray? |
| 0:39.8 | That's the question R.C. Sprawl will tackle today on this Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Prayer is part of the Christian |
| 0:46.5 | life, so it's vital that we understand prayer biblically and address the relationship |
| 0:52.6 | between God's sovereignty and our prayer lives. |
| 0:56.0 | But before we get to this final message in Dr. Sprawl's series on prayer, please know that |
| 1:02.0 | today is the final day that you can request digital access to this complete series and its |
| 1:08.0 | study guide, along with your own bonded leather edition of the Valley of Vision. |
| 1:13.4 | When you give a donation in support of renewing your mind at Renewingyourmind.org. |
| 1:18.8 | This offer will not be repeated next Saturday. |
| 1:22.1 | Well, here's Dr. Sprawl on Providence and Prayer. |
| 1:26.9 | Earlier in our study of prayer, I made mention on Providence and Prayer. |
| 1:36.7 | Earlier in our study of prayer, I made mention that our prayer life is intimately related to the providence of God. And we talked about how it's God's provisions that we are praying |
| 1:43.3 | about and for when we entreat him in our communication |
| 1:48.3 | of prayer. But when we look at the doctrine of divine providence, we recognize that God governs |
| 1:55.8 | the entire universe and all things in it, and that he is sovereign over everything that takes place. |
| 2:04.0 | And as soon as we begin to wrestle with the sovereignty of God over his creation and really |
... |
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