God's part in prayer is unseen and unfelt by us. Nevertheless, God does respond wonderfully. This lesson examines how God responds to the prayers of his people in three marvelous ways: intercession, providence, and good pleasure.
To intercede means to plead for someone and there are two who intercede for us with the Heavenly Father.
i. The intercession of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit intercedes because we are weak and imperfect in the way that we pray (Rom 8:26-27). The Spirit intercedes so that all things work together for our eternal good (Rom 8:28).
ii. The intercession of Jesus Christ. Jesus intercedes because we are weak and imperfect in the way that we live (1Jhn 1:8-9 and 2:1). Jesus intercedes so that our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience (Heb 10:21-22, 9:24, 7:25).
2. Providence
The meaning and purpose of providence
Providence means "all things work together for good"(Rom 8:28). The "good" here is our eternal good. It is not primarily our material well-being, but the salvation of our souls that God is providing (2Co 4:16-18).
The nature of providence
It may be thought that all the help we need from God has been provided already in the past through the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit. But in that case, what would be the point of making requests to God? What more could we request if everything has already been provided? (Php 4:6). The help of God is, by definition, supernatural help. We need supernatural help because we are in a supernatural conflict (Eph 6:10-18 especially v12). Supernatural does not necessarily mean miraculous. Non-miraculous providence, such as exemplified in the story of Esther, is God's usual response to prayer.
3. Good Pleasure
The true "sacrifice of praise" is something with which God is well pleased (Heb 13:14-16). What better thing can we do than please God, and cause God to smile upon us? We all realise of course that God is pleased with us only when we do our best. He is not pleased with mere token worship. Nor is God pleased with our worship if we worship to please ourselves and make ourselves feel good, instead of wishing to please him.
When a little child brings home her first effort at painting, the blobs on crumpled butcher's paper may not be a perfect work of art. But the parent is pleased, and hangs it on the fridge, because the child did her best and offered it with a genuine wish to please.