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In a recent issue of Reader’s Digest, there are letters about prayer. One of them is by an atheist. The final line is:

“When God hears your prayers and changes His plan, does that mean He was not all-knowing before?”

Consider two issues. Does God already know what you tell Him? Does God change His plans?

God wants us to come to Him in prayer. He wants us to tell him what He already knows. In Matthew 6:8, we learn that He knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

“For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

I am going to suggest to you that, although God is changeless in his purpose, he is changing plans for your life all the time. God’s plan is for you to be a kind, thoughtful, humble person and to do the right thing at all times. You were put on earth to do good, to develop angelic qualities and eventually to go to heaven. You make mistakes, and you even make selfish choices. God is ready with an amended plan every time you make a choice that is not ideal.

Suppose in life, you turn your back on God. Is that the end of the story? Has the plan failed? No. There is a new set of circumstances, and God in His constant love for your welfare invites you to pick up the pieces and try anew. From your infancy, God makes accommodations or “adjustments.” If you stray a little, He looks for you. Your free choices are vital.

In some ways atheism is a form of blindness, an inability to see wonders in creation and in human lives. When Jesus healed blind people, He asked them if they wanted to see. They needed to want sight and to seek sight, and He responded, and they walked thereafter in new light.

by Don Rose