Spurgeon: "Our prayer are in the predestination."

When it comes to predestination and election, one of the most frequent objections I have heard is some version of, "If God has determined all things, why share the gospel (or why pray)?" It seems that Charles Spurgeon heard those objections as well. Here is how he responded to them, taken from the book "The Power of Prayer" (pages 13-14, 1996 Whitaker House):

"Another objection has been raised that is very ancient indeed, and it has a great appearance of force. It is raised not so much by skeptics as by those who hold a part of the truth. It is this: prayer can certainly produce no results because the decrees of God have settled everything and those decrees are immutable. Now, we have no desire to deny the assertion that the decrees of God have settled all events. Certainly, it is our full belief that God has foreknown and pre-destined everything that happens in heaven above or in the earth beneath. I fully believe that the foreknown station of a reed by the river is as fixed as the station of a king, and the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. Predestination embraces the great and the little; it reaches to all things. The question is, Why pray? Might it not as logically be asked, Why breathe, eat, move, or do anything? We have an answer that satisfies us; namely, our prayers are in the predestination, and God has as much ordained His people's prayers as anything else. So, when we pray, we are producing links in a chain of ordained facts. Destiny decrees that I should pray – I pray. Destiney decrees that I will be answered – the answer comes to me." ~ Charles Spurgeon