[HarleyD]

Sure, it's an act for which you expect something in return.

I would suggest this is the wrong motive for prayer.

According to the Reformed theology that must be pointless, because God does not do what you expect him to do.

Prayer is not about what WE want. It is about understanding what God wants.

You say that you pray because God makes you pray, so then, by necessity, your prayers are simply doing His will, not yours.

If we love the Father, how can we not wish to talk to Him. The only reason we love, is because He first loved us.

It means your prayers were not pure, but selfish and unrighteous (cf James 5:16).

Well, this is one for the books. My desire is to see another person come to Christ and this is selfishness?

God didn't answer your prayer, HD.

God always answer your prayers. How you wish to interpret those answers is up to you. If you pray and do not have then, as James states, you have the wrong attitude and need to ask forgiveness and repent. You may still pray and not receive it because God has something better in mind. Prayer reveal your attitude towards God.

The synergists prays for others because the synergist believes that the good Lord can and does change things out of mercy in response to our pure prayers.

The synergist's prayer is completely contradictory to what they purport-the free will of man. If God can and does change the free will of man out of mercy in response to OUR prayer, then man's will is no longer free. God can bend that will according to His will.

[Kolokotronis]

“Prayer is not about what WE want. It is about understanding what God wants.”

Now that strikes me as very “unOrthodox”. As Kosta points out, we pray for God’s mercy, which we both want and need. I would add that we pray also for the blessing of accepting God’s decisions/will. We KNOW what God wants. The Church teaches us that in multiple ways. The problem is that we very often want something else and choose to proceed to act on what we want rather than what He does.

[stfassisi]

Is everything PLANNED (ordained) by God-yes.

Somewhere along the line you're going to run into an anomaly. Either it is the anomaly of Predestination and Free Will working together, or the anomaly of God ordaining all things and yet sin being one of the things He must have ordained.

If you,re going to tell us a person committing the sin does it out of an unrighteous, evil desire and purpose, that is Free Will. He decides to do evil.

The Calvinist God is so weak that he has to take away man's free will so that He can make sure all gets done as planned.

The Catholic/Orthodox God is so powerful that He can accomplish the same plan, even though He gives man a free will.

Dear Harley,have you ever thought about things in this way?

I wish you a Blessed Evening!

[kosta50]

Kosta: Sure, it's an act for which you expect something in return.

HD: I would suggest this is the wrong motive for prayer.

The Bible is full of such prayers.

HD: Prayer is not about what WE want. It is about understanding what God wants.

We can't presume to know what God wants.

HD: If we love the Father, how can we not wish to talk to Him. The only reason we love, is because He first loved us.

That's assuming He loves only those whom He preordained to love Him back — like robots.

HD: Well, this is one for the books. My desire is to see another person come to Christ and this is selfishness?

You said your prayers are for your own edification, HD.

HD: Prayer reveal your attitude towards God.

I agree, but not in your theology. In the Refromed theology, you pray because God wants you to pray! So, what does your attitude have to do with it?

HD: The synergist's prayer is completely contradictory to what they purport-the free will of man.

God gave Adam limited freedom. He could eat from whatever tree but one. Human free will is a biblical truth.  To deny it, as the Reformed do, is to deny what the Bible makes abundantly clear.

The only thing that limits our freedom is sin. We are not free to sin. Once we commit sin, we are no longer free.

Last time I checked, praying is not in the realm of sin.

Thus, the syngerist's prayer is anything but contradictory to man's free God-given will.