Does God Change His Mind When We Pray?

As we were discussing the immutability of God at our Sunday Evening Gathering, the question was asked—“Does God change His mind when we pray?” This is a great question that requires us to reconcile the seeming contradiction between Bible verses that declare God is immutable¹, sovereign², and does whatever he wills³ with those verses that refer to God regretting⁴ and relenting.⁵

When studying seeming contradictions in the Bible, I find it important to remember that our thoughts are not God’s thoughts⁶ and that our wisdom is nothing compared to God’s wisdom.⁷ As John Calvin stated, “the finite cannot contain the infinite,”⁸ so while we are able to know God, our knowledge of Him will never be comprehensive.⁹

So does God change His mind when we pray? No. God is unchangeable—He is immutable.¹⁰ As R.C. Sproul states:

Does prayer make any difference? Does it really change anything? Someone once asked me that question, only in a slightly different manner: “Does prayer change God’s mind?” My answer brought storms of protest. I said simply, “No.” Now, if the person had asked me, “Does prayer change things?” I would have answered, “Of course!”¹¹

But if prayer doesn’t change God’s mind, how do we interpret verses about God regretting and relenting, such as in Genesis 6:6?

Genesis 6:6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

The Reformation Study Bible note on this verse is informative:

regretted. Here is a reference to a change of attitude and action. There is no contradiction between this verse and passages teaching the changelessness (immutability) of God (Mal. 3:6; James 1:17) and that God does not change His mind (Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; Ps. 33:11; Is. 46:10). Remembering that this description is anthropopathic (God is depicted in terms of the human experience of knowledge and emotion), we must also recognize that the immutable and sovereign God deals appropriately with changes in human behavior. When people sin or repent of sin, He “changes His mind” with regard to the blessing or punishment appropriate to the situation (Ex. 32:12, 14; 1 Sam. 15:11; 2 Sam. 24:16; Jer. 18:11; Amos 7:3, 6)—all in accordance with His sovereign and eternal purposes. He works out all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11), having ordained every change in human behavior as well as His response to it; thus, He never changes like we do on the basis of new information or unforeseen consequences. Because God is changeless in His being and eternally loyal to His covenant promises and unchanging decree, we can have firm confidence in Him who is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8 and note).

As Matthew Henry states the expressions that the LORD regretted that he had made man and that it grieved him to his heart “are expressions after the manner of men, and must be understood so as not to reflect upon the honour of God’s immutability or felicity.”¹²

So if prayer doesn’t change God’s mind, what does change when we pray? We do—we change. Our thoughts about God, our feelings toward our neighbors, and the state of our heart all change when we pray to God. In addition to prayer changing us, prayer does change things around us. As Sproul states:

The mind of God does not change for God does not change. Things change, and they change according to His sovereign will, which He exercises through secondary means and secondary activities. The prayer of His people is one of the means He uses to bring things to pass in this world. So if you ask me whether prayer changes things, I answer with an unhesitating “Yes!”¹³

So even though there is a seeming contradiction, there is not an actual contradiction between Bible verses that declare God is immutable, sovereign, and does whatever he wills with those verses that refer to God regretting and relenting. God is sovereign, and in his infinite wisdom he has chosen to use prayer to bring about change both inside us and to the world around us.

To further study prayer, I recommend reading Does Prayer Change Things? by R.C. Sproul, which is succinct and available for free either as an eBook from Ligonier or on the Kindle from Amazon.

In Christ,
Matthew Rankin
March 1, 2022