God’s Plan and Prayer – Are They Compatible?

Many Christians believe their God (Yahweh) has a perfect plan for their life and that everything happens according to his divine plan. However, many Christians also believe in the power of prayer. I don’t think many Christians have given much thought to the compatibility of these two concepts. They also haven’t given much thought to God having a plan and freewill - but that’s a different discussion.

Let’s assume it’s true that a God exists who has a divine plan for our lives. If this is true, why are believers praying to this God asking him to intervene in some way? If God has a plan, aren't those who pray just believers who don't trust God's plan? It would be arrogant of us to think we have a better plan than God, and by praying we are basically asking God to alter his plan.

Now many Christians reading this may be thinking, “But when I pray, I thank God for what he has given me and ask that everything happens according to his plan”. Yes, Christians do thank God in their prayers and they do pray for things to happen according to his plan. But I've been to church many times, and during prayer people are constantly asking God to heal a loved one of an illness or accident.

On a side note, what is the purpose of praying to God that his will be done? If an all-powerful God wants his will to be done, it will be done whether he gets encouragement from believers or not. Think about it, it makes absolutely no sense to pray for God’s plan to happen because it is HIS plan - Christians are basically asking him to grant his own wish! It seems almost like people are trying to suck up to God so that he will help them later when they really need it.

If God does have a plan, his plan is indistinguishable from not having a plan. We always hear from Christians about how great their God is, but it is very easy to think that when blinders are on which keep us from seeing how much suffering really goes on. It is easy to say, “You are where God wants you to be at this very moment” when living in a developed country with luxuries which we can thank science for. But can you imagine anyone telling one of the children in this photo that they are where God wants them to be?

It’s odd that people who claim to have “Faith” in God and his plan are always trying to alter it to what they feel is best for them. However, this is not surprising, because we all want to enjoy our lives and we’ll do just about anything we can to make it better. We also want to believe that everything is going to be okay, and for believers it is comforting to think their God has a divine plan.

But this is where their cognitive dissonance comes into play - believers want to believe in these two concepts because one is comforting and the other is a possible way to improve their life or the lives of others. If prayer worked, it would also be the easiest way to improve our life because it requires little to no effort at all and when given a task we usually will choose the easiest way to accomplish it. If we believe prayer works, we feel like we did something to make a difference without doing anything at all - and this is tragic for those who need real help. As Lawrence Krauss once put it,

"If you are choking next to me and either I could preform the Heimlich maneuver or I could pray for you, which would you choose?  

There is no evidence for a god, but even if there was a god – believing that it has a divine plan and also answers our requests which would alter his plan is completely incompatible.