Peter Witkowski Apologetics, Pain & Suffering

Why Prayer Works & is Enough…Almost

As the horrors of the recent Minneapolis school shooting came into the nation’s consciousness, the city’s Mayor, Jacob Frey, used the moment to address the validity of prayer. After offering support for the victims, Frey declared “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.” The implication of the mayor’s comments proves straightforward: Prayers do not work. As later noted on CNN, “The meaning there is, prayers are good, but they are not enough.” Is he correct?

A Brief History of Failed Prayers

Though the backdrop of this current discussion over the effectiveness of prayer is grievous, the discussion itself is not new. During the end of the twentieth century, the Russian communist party ran prayer experiments in their elementary schools. Children were told to pray to God for candy. After nothing happened, they were told to pray to the Soviet communist party and its leaders for candy. As the readers can anticipate, the candy (with the help of some grown-up Soviets on the roof) floated down from the vents. Again, the conclusion to be reached: “Prayers do not work.”

Moreover, this is not the first time that Christians have been murdered while worshiping Jesus. Stephen was stoned to death in Acts 7:60 as he prayed. During the reigns of emperors Nero and Diocletian, countless Christians were eaten by lions, burned as candles, and executed as they sang and prayed. John Bunyan of Pilgrim Progress fame was arrested by the British authorities (which also caused his wife to miscarry) while in the middle of a sermon. And in 2022, 35 parishioners worshiping at St. Francis Catholic Church in Nigeria were murdered by terrorists armed with automatic weapons and bombs. All of these events as well as those in Minneapolis once again raise the question, “do prayers work?”

A Short Answer

The short answer is, “yes!” Prayers work but they work in accordance with God’s intent. In other words, prayers that align with God’s revealed will (Scripture), his justice, and his ultimate purpose will always reach the throne room of heaven.

When believers ask God for the grace needed to forgive those who sinned against them or to put their greed to death, the Lord promises to grant such requests. Operating in this paradigm, the apostle John writes “if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 Jn 5:14-15).” God promises to bless those who ask him for the grace needed to obey the gospel ethic the ability to obey the Scriptures. To quote, Paul “For this is the will of God, your sanctification (1 Thess 4:3).”

God also works through prayers to bless his saints with good gifts that will further their pursuit of God’s ethic and that will enable them to rejoice in God’s goodness. Countless men and women have graduated from college, gotten married, had children, survived attacks, and experienced healing from cancer because God granted their requests and those of their friends and family. James the brother of Jesus who credits God as being the source of “Every good gift and every perfect gift” also reports that “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working (Ja 1:7; 5:16).” In other words, God works through the prayers of his children to accomplish good in this broken world. Christians should regularly ask God to grant them wisdom, health, and safety. “Give us this day our daily bread (Lk 11:3).” The world would benefit from more prayer and not less. Prayer works.

Why Doesn’t God Protect His People?

But then why did the Mayor of Minneapolis have an opportunity to criticize prayer? What of in those old Soviet era classrooms and Nigeria? If God is all powerful, all good, and all loving, why does he still allow his people to suffer and die?

To make sense of this question, Christians must realize that prayer is guided by the rails of God’s justice and God’s eternal purpose for his people. In other words, God answers prayers in accordance with his character.

God’s Justice

God promises to cast “the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable… murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars” into the lake of fire and to create a new heavens and a new earth where “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore(Rev 21:8,3).” But he will do so at the end of time when he returns to judge the living and the dead. Justice will be delayed. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones aptly notes, “So the Christian is left with the profound pessimism with regard to the present, but with a glorious optimism with regard to the ultimate and eternal future.”

As humanity waits for that day, it will go from bad to worse. Paul says people will increasingly be among other things “abusive…heartless…brutal…[and] treacherous (1 Tim 3:2-4).” Or to quote Jesus “lawlessness will be increased (Matt 24:7-14).”

And with increased wickedness comes increased focus on harming God’s children. Jesus declares in Mark 13:12-13: “And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Or as Paul bluntly notes, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (1 Tim 3:12).  God never promises to save his people from suffering and persecution. Rather, he promises that he will go with them as they suffer and await justice.

To make sense of God’s delayed justice and why he does not grant every prayer for safety and health, we must reflect upon God’s ultimate purpose for his people.

God’s Ultimate Purpose

God’s ultimate purpose for his people is for them to dwell with him. In other words, God’s ultimate purpose is for his people to reach heaven and to live with him forever in the new heavens and the new earth.

Many times, God ordains suffering so that Christians may more fully experience the truth that God is all they need. As Paul notes in 2 Corinthians 12:10. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Or as James notes, suffering results in Christians becoming “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (Ja 1:4).” God’s goal is not for us to all be millionaires or to live to 150. It is not our best life now. God’s goal for us to reach is heaven for “There is no joy like the joy of heaven.” Often the best preparation for heaven – the putting to death of sin and communing with God – comes through suffering and not from candy raining down from the rafters. “Oft-times spiritual comforts are at their highest when physical well-being is at its lowest.”

What proves true of Christian suffering also proves true of a Christian’s death. Though Christians diligently strive to put off sin throughout their lives, final victory over sin can only be achieved at death when the believer trades his mortal body for his eternal body. “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality (1 Cor 15:53).” As R.C. Sproul notes, “Ultimate healing comes through death and after death (51).” Even those whom Jesus healed during his earthly ministry still died because their bodies where still infected by sin. To reach Jesus and perfection, Christians must surrender their mortal bodies.

When Jesus allows the wicked to murder one of his saints such as Charlie Kirk, he has not failed that precious soul. Rather, God has granted him the greatest blessing of all, life with God. To quote Paul, “to die is gain (Phil 1:21).

Moreover, death proves not to be the end of the Christian’s prayers but their ultimate fulfillment. At death, Jesus heals not for a moment but forever. At death, Jesus gives safety not for an hour but without end. At death, Jesus gives peace not for a moment but for an eternity.  To quote Thomas Watson, “Death may take a few worldly comforts, but it gives that which is better; it takes away a flower and gives a jewel; it takes away a short lease and gives a land of inheritance.” Or to quote the Psalmist, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15).”

God answers prayer.

It’s Not Enough

Though prayers work, I also believe there is still some indirect merit to Mayor Frey’s claim and to the claims of pundits such as Jen Psaki who wrote, ‘Prayer is not freaking enough.”

In one sense, prayer is not enough. It is not some secret formula that can force an otherwise good, loving, and just God to go against his nature. Prayers must arise out of and align with obedience to God’s reveal will (Bible) to be effective. Jesus is not impressed with the flowery request of those who defraud their neighbor nor with the liturgies of those that teach against God’s sexual ethic. When Israelites tossed some prayers towards Yahweh for salvation while simultaneously offering child sacrifices to pagan deities, the Lord says, “no (Ez 20:27-30).” The prophet said on God’s behalf “And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them (Ez 8:18).” The one thing lacking in our cities, communities, and religiosity is not prayers to the God of the universe but rather obedience to that God’s revealed will. Sadly, few politicians and pundits have waded into the waters of repentance and revival.

Conclusion

Prayer will not always produce earthly safety or candy from the rafters. Justice will come when Christ returns, and ultimate joy, peace, and safety will be found in heaven. But prayers tied to faith infused obedience and set upon the rails of God’s justice and ultimate purpose will prove effective. They will usher us into the throne room of heaven. Prayer works.

Peter Witkowski Memos, Pain & Suffering

Anna Who Waited: How the Means of Grace Sustain the Grieving

When my dear wife stopped breathing, I instinctively and instantaneously began yearning for the wholeness that had been. Though I longed for a quick fix, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does not guarantee his members two-day shipping. At times, we will have to wait weeks, months, years, and even lifetimes for God to restore and heal what has been lost. In other words to grieve well, we must learn to wait well.

Half The Story: Make Your Bed And Do the Next Thing

A few year back, Admiral H. McRaven made waves in American culture when he asserted that, “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” He explained, “It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another take and another and another.” Though there exists a whole litany of reasons why someone might not make their bed first thing in the morning (for example sleeping spouses and children generally don’t appreciate being folded into sheets at 5AM), the basic idea behind the “make your bed principle” still stands. When everything is not what it should be and when we feel like quitting life, we do not need to climb Mt. Everest. We only need to do the next thing: take a shower, pick up the kids from school, or organize those pillows at the foot of the bed. Such an attitude can keep depression from spiraling into an ever-growing vortex doom which grows in size with ever failed tasks. But while the determination ‘to do the next thing’ proves essential to survival while grieving (click here for a fuller discussion of this topic), it cannot restore and sustain our aching souls as they wait for wholeness.

That Something More: Prayer and Fasting

Life comes not from our resolve but rather from our dependence upon the author of life through prayer and fasting. In Luke 2:36-37, the gospel author introduces us to the prophetess Anna. Like all young women of her day, she had entered marriage at a young age anticipating all the joys that come with having a family. But the children never came. Before she reached her eighth wedding anniversary, her husband would die. She would spend at least the next sixty years (if not more) as a widow waiting for the appearance of the Lord. How did she survive all those long years of waiting in the midst of grief? Luke relays the secret of her success writing “She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day (Lk 2:37).”

Upon the death of her husband, Anna doubled down on her faith. As Asaph before, Anna trusted that she would find answers to her grief, sorrows, and afflictions in the house of the Lord. In the words of Psalm 73:16-17 “But when I thought how to understand this it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went to the sanctuary of God.” Eternal perspective and its resulting hope comes not through relaxation, new friendships, or our contemplative walks. It comes through worship that is facilitated by the people of God in the house of God. As the author of Hebrews notes God uses liturgies, songs, sermons, and corporate prayers to stir us up “love and good works (10:24).” If we hope to make sense of our longing, our sorrow, and the goodness of God as we wait, we must enter the temple of the Lord.

And we must do so actively. Once inside the temple, Anna prayed and fasted. She deprived her body of food to represent the brokenness that she felt and to affirm that her salvation did not reside in God’s good gifts but in God revealed through Scripture. To quote Psalm 119:92, “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” In other words, the power to keep waiting, to survive the sorrows of grief comes from the Lord through the Scriptures. Moreover, the very ability to understand and obey those scriptural promises also comes from the Lord. He must open our eyes so that we can “behold wonderous things out of” his law (Ps 119:18). Every time her stomach growled, Anna affirmed afresh Deuteronomy 8:3, which declares, “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Not only did Anna depend upon the word of God and his means of grace, but she also knew the God of the temple would act. The great king David had written in Psalm 34:6 that: “The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles.” God had acted and saved David from his political enemies. She also knew she was not the first woman to fast and pray in the Lord’s house. Before there was a king David or a temple, Hannah the future mother of the great prophet Samuel, entered the tabernacle (a holy tent structure where the Jews worship the Lord) desperate for a child. Scripture said of her, “She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.” In taking her sorrows to the Lord, Hannah shows us that those who have been overwhelmed by the waves of grief can and will find hope, relief, and encouragement in the knowledge that “By day the Lord commands his steadfast love and at night his song is with me (Ps. 42:3, 8).” Though her soul was melting away with sorrow, Hannah found contentment, hope, and eventually a son through her prayers. Likewise, Anna remained faithful to the Lord for over six decades and got to see the Christ child because she never stopped taking her concerns to the Lord who sustained her. In the words of John Flavel, “It is not your inherent strength that enables you to stand but what your receive and daily derive from Jesus (130).” To take one’s concern’s to God is more than an psychological, therapeutic exercise. It is an expression of faith in God’s goodness that in turn produces more faith, the very faith that will sustain us as we wait.

The Apostle Peter and What Not to Do

The worst thing we can do as we wait for wholeness is to trade prayer and fasting in God’s house for self-reliance. If we switch out the things of God for shopping, nights out, and vacations, we will find ourselves buddying up to the apostle Peter on the night when he betrayed Jesus three times and then descended into deep despair. As theologian D.A. Carson helpfully notes, “People do not drift towards holiness.” Or as Jesus warned Peter, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Because Peter neglected the normal means of grace, Peter found himself not at Jesus’s side as the events of the crucifixion unfolded but fleeing into the darkness of the night. Neither made beds nor vibrant faith come about through magic, well wishes, or happenstance but through intentionality.  If we neglect the means of grace, our waiting will not end in joy but in the unrelenting despair of unnecessary sorrow.

Admittedly, we can attend church, fast, and pray for all the wrong reasons. Jesus cautions us against retooling such things for personal gain, saying, “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you (Mt 6:17-18).” But the solution to bad rhythms and misuses of God’s good gifts never proves to be the elimination of those means of grace but rather the proper usage of them. We do not abolish speech because of lies nor marriage because of sexual sin. Similarly, we should not avoid church, fasting, and prayer because we or someone else we know fasted or prayed poorly.

And when we do find ourselves reading, praying, and fasting with a cold or faithless heart, we need only to confess those sinful motives to the Lord and ask for fresh love. Grief is not a time for new inventions or indolence but rather a time for pressing into those simple and yet extraordinary means of grace that we were hopefully employing before the tragedy of death struck our hearts.

Our Hope

And we do all of this because the God who hears our prayers promises to answer our prayers precisely because we are poor and needy. One day soon, our waiting will come to an end. We will see the redemption of Jerusalem. For some of us, that answered prayer might take the form of a spouse, a child, or a new friendship. For some of us that moment will come when God reduces our desires and thereby brings them into line with his secret will for us. And for some of us, that moment may not come until we see Christ face to face. But it will come. Just assuredly as Anna saw the newly born savior and bore testimony of that joy to all who would listen, we too will soon see Jesus. And when we do, all grief and sorrow will be made well. Friends do not grow weary in your waiting. Do not neglect the means of grace. Go make your bed, but even more importantly go with Anna to the house of the lord to pray and fast. God hears our prayers!  

Peter Witkowski Pain & Suffering

Ponytails, Buns, & The Blessing of Small Mercies

Grief finds its way into even the smallest cracks. Having suffered through the bangs and large rim glasses of the 90s, my late wife longed to protect our girls from the world of bowl haircuts. Always possessing an eye for artistic design, April delighted in doing the girls up like Elsa or Belle and in sending them off to school with some new braid that she had picked up from a YouTube tutorial. One needed to only look at my girls’ hair to know that they had a mom that loved them.

Now, such glances reveal them to be some of the tiniest victims of this world’s brokenness…to be motherless. Though April longed to impart some basic hair skills to our eldest daughter, April’s final demise proved so quick and so violent and my daughter so young, that my dear bride could not teach my then kindergartener (much less her little sister) the ins and outs of braiding, brushing, and updos. At her death, April had to entrust their innocent little locks to my calloused hands. Though my little sister has done her best to educate me on the finer points of brushing and even braiding (don’t ask), I remain a rather incompetent hairdresser. Now, every knotted tangle and slightly imperfect ponytail serves a fresh reminder of what was and what is no more.

Though grief has seeped into this mundane rhythm of our lives, goodness has still managed to sprout out of this tiny manifestation of brokenness. In case you’re wondering, I do not reference my hair skills. They still serve as one of the greatest impetuses for the girl’s prayer life.

Rather with each passing day, I have seen my girls embrace the sweet, feminine resolve which so defined their mother and which so enriched our lives the last years. The girls have pushed through my world of Churchill bobbleheads and autographed football helmets and have begun to craft their own ‘ice cream buns,’ braids, and complex ponytails. This little grace which April and I feared would disappear after her death has resurfaced in the most sincere and sweetest of ways. Even in a bun, one can discover the mercies of God.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. – James 1:17