It is assumed that if God is omnipotent he can do anything; but this is not strictly true. What God’s omnipotence does mean is that nothing can obstruct him, nothing
can prevent his being fully and eternally himself.

But this means that it is actually a part of his omnipotence that God does not contradict himself. He is free to determine the manner of his own working; and in fact, as we know from revelation, he has chosen to work in such a way that we can interfere, and interfere very drastically, with his creation. God made man such that man could rebel against him, and set up his own ”world” in opposition to God. Of course, God is not without allies even in ”our” world; he knows that we can never really be satisfied with any world of our own devising, so that it will always be vulnerable to his in?uence in one way or another; and God exploits this to the full. But he always respects the freedom and independence that he has given us.

—Simon Tugwell, Prayer

Logically, then, this is what makes prayer so enigmatic at times. God loves us too much to be our great Puppeteer so that we become his marionettes, and we have to learn to live with that blessing and grace, enigmatic and maddening as that can be. At the same time, Fr. Tugwell reminds us that God is and remains omnipotent so that we can count on him to be greater than we are and to work to completion his good will and purposes for our lives and the whole of his creation. Remember this the next time you are wrestling with God in prayer and be thankful.