I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "how". Prayer itself is in obedience to God, and glorifies Him. Therefore, it is good. All the good I do is God working through me, so in that sense it is ordained, and I benefit. ...... IF we assume that prayer is a significant part of perseverance, then I do not think God would let me give it up permanently. I could choose to stray and become a slacker for a while, but God would either bring me around, or He would take me home before my salvation was lost. And, yes, I would assume that my reward in Heaven would be lesser for the time I gave up praying.
The Calvinistic approach really doesn’t make sense to me since prayer consists of such things as asking for God’s help, and since nothing that we do matters, then what does asking for God’s help accomplish?
As above, it glorifies God as it is in obedience to Him. Prayer is certainly not for the purpose of informing God of our needs (Matt. 6:8). Rather, it is for our benefit as it is communication with God, which He desires. Also, when we pray and ask Him for things we are reminded of our dependence on Him (e.g. God is the only one who can help me out of this mess, etc.), and this helps us to develop a deeper love for Him, all good things. So, a Calvinist would not say that nothing we do matters, it certainly matters to us! :)
I know that this is a scab that I really shouldn’t pick.
“I could choose to stray and become a slacker for a while, but God would either bring me around, or He would take me home before my salvation was lost. And, yes, I would assume that my reward in Heaven would be lesser for the time I gave up praying.”
Please fill me in on this. How is the Heavenly reward less?