The Limited Unlimited God

I do not believe that God is a God without limits. This is a cornerstone of my faith.

His limits are two-fold:
He has self imposed limits or those things which he has committed not to do by his own will, and the limit of being true to his own nature. Although he can and does do as he pleases, we must understand that his very nature dictates those things which he pleases to do.

If God could violate his own nature he would not then be an unchanging God. This is what I believe is meant when he claims to be so, he cannot and will not violate his own pure and righteous nature.

This does not however mean that he is unable or unwilling to redirect his actions provided that in doing so he is still true to his character. For example when prior to creating Adam, God exemplifying his triunal state, debates with himself about man's fate following his fall.

I also do not believe that God is subject to his own creation(s), perhaps more accurately he is not limited by them. They are his to with as he pleases except in those instances when he has willingly committed to being so for the benefit of them. For example again bestowing man with freewill in the choice to or not to pursue God. Though God does pursue man, man is free to reject God.

As I always say:
What can man actually give to God that God did not afford him in the first place. What is it that he would not, could not take from him in spite of his great desire for it?
Love.
That and that alone is man's to give.
.

I digress...

That said, another creation of God's to  which he is not limited is time. To be subject to time disallows the notion of an eternal nature since time inherently marks a beginning and an end.

If we believe that God is subject to time as being within it, rather than outside of it, we must then believe in things such as a literal 7 day creation story, or that he is not all knowing since he, just as we, have not yet experienced the future. He would therefore be limited in his ability to maintain order in his own creation for in so being he may change the course of events but to what end he could not know. We would have made God in our own image to believe it so.

All of this to ask the following: At what point did prayer become a means of petitioning God to not simply intervene but to heed our desires and undo what has already been done? And why would he?

There are many examples in the Bible where he, as many fathers do, has chosen to do indulge the requests of his children. There are many reasons why I as a father do so, but I am finite and limited just as my children are.  I simply have the benefit of experience which really only allows me to make more informed guesses about what may be best, nevertheless they are still guesses.

I don't believe that God guesses. I also believe that being outside of time and thus all knowing, God is able to undo that which has been done and so with certainty rather than informed guesses entertain the requests of his children.

The father is not subject to the will of his child except in those instances which he allows it to be so. That's just logical parenting. But God calls himself Father and we his children.

So why does God actually change his previously determined courses of action? 
It is an overwhelming concept to me. Especially when I consider the examples of prayer given to us by Jesus, setting forth a pattern which really only allows us to pray for God's will rather than the fulfillment of our desires, though we are allowed to express our desires... like not wanting to be crucified.

I must admit that a fair amount of this curiosity came from my reading of the Jew that felt so free to haggle with God about his conditions for saving Sodom and Gomorrah. Down and down he brought the price, from a seemingly certain destruction. But we know how that story ended as well I suppose.

I've really gotten off track but this in part my questioning about the relationship between God and man. The finite grasping to comprehend the infinite.

Good thing I'm using my phone,  this could have been much longer.

Solo Cristo Salva
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