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B.M. Palmer was a well-respected Presbyterian minister who preached the Christian Gospel in New Orleans in the 1800’s. His excellent Theology of Prayer is not the easiest book to find but is full of helpful insights and is well worth the effort of working through its antiquated style and comprehensive arguments. One of the topics he explores is the relationship of the Sovereign will of God and our human will, which we voice in our prayers. He stresses that prayer is not a means by which we rub the divine genie lamp. Prayer is the channel by which God gives us blessings which He has pre-planned.  True prayer has to be answered because it involves asking for the things which God already intends to give us when we pray . “The scriptural principle is, not that favours are by our importunity wrung from the reluctance of the Divine Being, but that they antedate the prayer in the determinations of his sovereign and gracious will”. How do we know what God intends to give? Objectively we