Praying for World Cup Outcomes and God's Sovereignty

Sources

1. Psalms “Psalms 20:5 (BSB) — May we shout for joy at your victory and raise a banner in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your petitions.”
2. Romans “Romans 10:1 (Webster) — Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they may be saved.”
3. Psalms “I cry out to God Most High, to God who accomplishes my requests for me. -- Psalms 57:2”
4. Psalms “Psalms 118:25 (NASB) — O LORD, do save, we beseech You; O LORD, we beseech You, do send prosperity!”
5. Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or formal. It is a "beseeching the Lord" (Ex. 32:11); "pouring out the soul before the Lord" (1 Sam. 1:15); "praying and crying to heaven" (2 Chr. 32:20); "seeking unto God and making supplication" (Job 8:5); "drawing near to God" (Ps. 73:28); "bowing the knees" (Eph. 3:14). Prayer presupposes a belief in the personality of God, his ability and willingness to hold inter”
6. Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Prayer — Commanded -- Isa 55:6; Mt 7:7; Php 4:6. To be offered To God. -- Ps 5:2; Mt 4:10. To Christ. -- Lu 23:42; Ac 7:59. To the Holy Spirit. -- 2Th 3:5. Through Christ. -- Eph 2:18; Heb 10:19. God hears -- Ps 10:17; 65:2. God answers -- Ps 99:6; Isa 58:9. Is described as Bowing the knees. -- Eph 3:14. Looking up. -- Ps 5:3. Lifting up the soul. -- Ps 25:1. Lifting up the heart. -- La 3:41. Pouring out the heart. -- Ps 62:8. Pouring out the soul. -- 1Sa 1:15. Calling upon the name of the Lord. -- Ge 12:8; Ps 116:4; Ac 22:16. Crying to God. -- Ps 27:7; 34:6. Drawing”
7. Psalms (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Psalms 68:28: 68:28-31 The people pray for God’s success and for victory over the enemy nations (68:1-3).”
8. CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 73: imparts that peace which passes all understanding. Our Lord says, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” ( John xiv. 28 .) In such fellowship, the soul must be holy and must be blessed. The Power of Prayer. The course of human events is not controlled by physical force alone. There are other powers at work in the government of the 709 world. There is the power of ideas, true or false; the power of truth; the power of love and human sympathy; the power”
9. CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 75: For although devils and men rise in tumult against him, he is able by his incomprehensible counsel not only to turn aside their violence, but make it subservient to the execution of his decrees. What we here speak of is another will of God, namely, that of which voluntary obedience is the counterpart; and, therefore, heaven is expressly contrasted with earth, because, as is said in The Psalms, the angels “do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word,” ( Ps. 103:20 ). We are, therefore, enjoined to pray that as everyth”
10. CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 73: This doctrine is presupposed in prayer; for “prayer and the answer of prayer, are simply . . . . the preferring of a request upon the one side, and compliance with that request upon the other. Man applies, God complies. Man asks a favour, God bestows it. These are conceived to be the two 695 terms of a real interchange that takes place between the parties — the two terms of a sequence, in fact, whereof the antecedent is a prayer lifted up from earth, and the consequent is the fulfilment of that prayer in virtue of a mandate from heaven.” ”
11. CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 75: procedure seems to him best, in respect of method, time, and place. For before we offer up any petition for ourselves, we ask that his will may be done, and by so doing place our will in subordination to his, just as if we had laid a curb upon it, that, instead of presuming to give law to God, it may regard him as the ruler and disposer of all its wishes. 51. If, with minds thus framed to obedience, we allow ourselves to be governed by the laws of Divine Providence, we shall easily learn to persevere in prayer, and suspending our o”
12. theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Second Part of the Second Part (Secunda Secundae), Of Prayer, Art. 5: Article: Whether we ought to ask for something definite when we pray? I answer that, According to Valerius Maximus [*Fact. et Dict. Memor. vii, 2], "Socrates deemed that we should ask the immortal gods for nothing else but that they should grant us good things, because they at any rate know what is good for each one whereas when we pray we frequently ask for what it had been better for us not to obtain." This opinion is true to a certain extent, as to those things which may have an evil result, and”
13. CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 75: ingratitude and malice should impair, our audacity and petulance should as much as in them lies destroy, the glory of God? But though all the ungodly should burst with sacrilegious rage, the holiness of God’s name still shines forth. Justly does the Psalmist exclaim, “According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth,” ( Ps. 48:10 ). For wherever God hath made himself known, his perfections must be displayed, his power, goodness, wisdom, justice, mercy, and truth, which fill us with admiration, and incite us”
14. Matthew (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Matthew 6:10: 6:10 In praying for God’s Kingdom to come soon, Jesus’ disciples pray for his justice, righteousness, peace, and mercy to be established. • Outside God’s will, no person will be permitted into God’s presence (7:21; 12:50; 21:28-32). • on earth, as it is in heaven: This probably refers to all of the first three petitions, not just the third.”
15. Westminster Confession of Faith (Reformed) “Westminster Confession of Faith (Reformed, 1646), CHAPTER 21 (part 1): CHAPTER 21 Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day 1. The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and doth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, ”
16. CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 73: All this for the believer is literal truth, having in its support the highest kind of evidence. The “how” he is content to leave unexplained. It is an objection often urged against the propriety of addressing prayer to God, that it is inconsistent with his dignity as an infinite Being to suppose that He concerns Himself with the trifling affairs of men. This objection arises from a forgetfulness that God is infinite. It assumes that his knowledge, power, or presence, is limited; that He would be distracted if his attention were directed t”
17. CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 73: § 20. Prayer. Prayer is the converse of the soul with God. Therein we manifest or express to Him our reverence, and love for his divine perfection, our gratitude for all his mercies, our penitence for our sins, our hope in his forgiving love, our submission to his authority, our confidence in his care, our desires for his favour, and for the providential and spiritual blessings needed for ourselves and others. As religion, in the subjective sense of the word, is the state of mind induced by the due apprehension of the character of God and”