R.C. Sproul

But my practical question for you is this.

If you were to crystallize the essence of one outstanding character trait of your own personality and had to give yourself a name, would that name be patience, courage,

Hope?

Kindness?

Would it be bully?

Worrier?

It may be a good name.

It may be a bad name.

But ask yourself, if you could name yourself according to your most outstanding personal characteristic, what would your name be?

It might be an exercise.

in learning about who you are.

In his sovereignty, he has so designed his plan of salvation as to work through the prayers of his people.

And that's why the Bible again and again encourages us, not only encourages us, but commands us to be actively involved in prayer.

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 about and for when we entreat Him.

in our communication of prayer.

But when we look at the doctrine of divine providence, we recognize that God governs the entire universe and all things in it, and that He is sovereign over everything that takes place.

And as soon as we begin to wrestle with the sovereignty of God over His creation and really examine

the fine points of the doctrine of providence, one of the first questions we encounter is, well, if God is sovereign,

And if he ordains everything that comes to pass in some sense, what use is there in praying?