Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Will My Prayers Undo God’s Good Plans For Me?

In Romans 8:26-27, Paul provides Christians with the antidote to a misconception of God’s character that kills prayer faster than weed killer eliminates grass. The error or fear that Paul sets his sights on in Romans 8:26-27 is the belief that a poorly informed prayer will cause the God of the Bible to do less than his best for his children. Some Christians fear that their heavenly Father will be like an earthly father who abandons his three-cookie plan for the two-cookie plan because his daughter only asked for two cookies instead of three. For example, the sister fears that she married Greg not because Greg was God’s best for her but because Greg was the object of her prayers. Had she prayed differently, she would have secured a better husband and a happier marriage…the one that God was going to give prior to her prayers for Greg. In other words, if prayer can inadvertently secure less than God’s best, Christians would be justified in assuming that they often be better off not praying than praying wrongly.

Paul’s antidote to such thinking? Recall the character of Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the knowledge of the Father.

Recall Jesus’ Character

Jesus proved that his character was free of trickery and deceit when he died on the cross, was buried, and rose again to accomplish the greatest good for his followers: their salvation from sin and death. And just as Jesus delighted in saving his people from their ultimate demise, he also delights in saving them from their current difficulties, hardships, and struggles. The Jesus who delighted in healing the woman with the flow of blood, casting out demons, and purifying lepers is the same Jesus who sits in the heavenly throne room listening to our prayers. Because of this reality, the author of Hebrews encourages Christians to come boldly to the throne of grace without fear or hesitation. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).”  When believers ask God for help, they can be sure that Jesus will do what is best for them because Jesus is always good.

Recall the Work of the Holy Spirit

And not only is Jesus good, he gives Christians the help of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit proves to be the greatest of gifts because the Spirit regenerates and sanctifies the believer. The Spirit opens a believer’s eyes during the salvific process so that he can understand his sin, the work of Christ, and then respond to that work with repentance and faith. As Paul explains to Titus in Titus 3:5: “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”

The Spirit also sanctifies believers, enabling them to become more like Christ as they seek to work out their faith. As the apostle Peter notes in 1 Peter 1:2, Christians grow in righteousness through “the sanctification of the Spirit.”

Though much of the Spirit’s sanctification work takes place on earth, it also possesses an important heavenly aspect. Paul writes in Romans 8:26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” As Christians march through this world of hurts, sorrows, pains, disappointments, and suffering, the Spirit helps believers with their prayers. When death threatens, relationships break down, or pain wrecks their bodies, the Spirit comes alongside Christians who can do little more than groan “God help me,” and takes their full set of needs to the Father and the Son.

The Spirit’s intercession work also mitigates the danger of praying against God’s secret will. Even when a Christian asks for the wrong thing because of sin (lusting after marriage) or simply from a lack of knowledge (should I date Greg or Fred), the Spirit will always advocate for the Christian’s best outcome in accordance with Jesus’ good character. Such knowledge of the Spirit’s working gave Paul comfort when Jesus refused to remove the thorn from Paul’s flesh. Writing of that incident in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, Paul said, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”’ The Father and the Son through the Spirit gave Paul the best outcome for his soul even when he did not ask for it. Consequently, the woman may be certain that Greg was always God’s bes’t for her regardless of how hard her marriage becomes. Even if she asked wrongly, the Spirit asked rightly.  

Recall The Knowledge of the Father

And not only does the Spirit ask rightly, his prayers and messages always get to the Father, ensuring their perfect implementation. In Romans 8:27, Paul explains, “And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” The person of the Trinity who searches hearts is the Father as the broader witness of Scripture makes clear. Jeremiah 17:10 proclaims: “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind.” The Father perfectly knows the thoughts of the Spirit who intercedes for us according to God’s will. The Spirit’s requests, which reflect Jesus’ good plans for his saints, always come to the Father perfectly intact, untainted by human sin or limitations. In other words, the Christian’s prayers will always turn out for the best not because he prays best and true but because Jesus is good, the Spirit is working, and the Father has knowledge. As Jesus reminds us in Matthew 7:11, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Final Thoughts

The Spirit’s prayers on the Christian’s behalf do not guarantee a life of ease, comfort, or peace. Many times, God’s best will lead believers into seasons of hardship and sorrow as the apostle Paul’s life makes clear. He lived “in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers (2 Cor 11:26).” The Lord will call sisters to faithfully live in marriages with Greg’s of this world. And when Christians find themselves in hardships and surrounded by suffering, they should pray and pray boldly knowing that through their prayers and the prayers of the Spirit “all things work together for good (Rom 8:28).”

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Why I Don’t Talk to April But Pray

When my dear April ceased to breathe, a piercing emptiness settled over my home and my soul. Where once there had been laughter, playful banter, and deep theological reflection now there was only thick, sticky, and suffocating silence.

As my heart broke under the weight of April’s death, I longed to be heard, to pour out my heart without reserve and without concern of time, schedule, or setting. But when I asked aloud, “Where are you, my love?” the air brought back no reply.

Why I Generally Don’t Talk to April

Though some have suggested that I trade my past marital dialogues for a therapeutic monologue, I find the option rather uncompelling if not troubling. I have no idea how April would respond to the experiences, concerns, hopes, worries, and fears that I now carry about with me. I can certainly speculate about how she might react to this or that. But as all good historians know, such speculations prove to be anachronistic and wholly inauthentic. They are nothing more than the manifestations of our imaginations on to reality which by logical necessity distort reality. We cannot project out without either adding to or taking away from what would be real. Such imaginary interactions with our dead loved ones are to reality what orcs are to men.

But even if she were to interact with my ramblings from heaven, she would have little to share with me for she is perfect, and I (as my kids will happily attest to) am not. As Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” The struggles, fears, worries, hopes, and desires that I wish to process aloud with her, the things the make me yearn for her open ear, derive from my incomplete knowledge of the Lord and from my sinful frailty. April no longer shares in those things, nor can she relate to my incompleteness for she knows the eternal joy of completeness. She has crossed the Jordan. Even if she could respond to my mumblings, I could no more understand her knowledge than a three-year-old could understand the terminology used to develop rocket science. As Paul noted of his vision of heaven, “he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.” And what she could share with me has already been shared with me through the Scriptures. As Jesus said in his parable of the rich man and Lazarus, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them (Lk 16:29).”

This is not to say that April has no knowledge of me nor awareness of what happens in my life or in the lives of our dear children while she awaits Christ’s return in heaven. Scripture seems to indicate some heavenly awareness of earthly things. But while her love for us and us for her remains, we have no meaningful way to communicate. Death has separated us until it will one day again unite us. Until then, I must embrace the reality of her absence.

Why I Pray

But I do not have to embrace the silence. Though I have lost the companionship of my April for a time, I am not alone. My cries do not go unheard. The Psalmist offers all who grieve a glorious hope writing, “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.” I still process my life out loud. I cry out to the Lord through the penetrating silence that has enveloped my bedroom, kitchen, car, office, and even the church sanctuary. When I am alone and in need of help, I talk to the God who is there in the silence, bottling my tears as I weep through the night, extending grace to me as I argue with him through the day, and filling my heart with hope as I plead for fresh signs of his goodness and love. In other words, I do not bottle up my emotions but rather audibly process them with the Lord. The Puritan John Flavel who discovered the goodness of this process a few hundred years before me wrote,

To whom should children go but to their father, to make their moan…Did we complain more to God, he would complain less of us, and quickly abate the matters of our complaint.

Oh friends, it is sweet to process one’s life through prayer. Indeed, to talk with God is to commune with him and to experience the truth, love, and grace that transforms our lives.

However, such practices are not unique to widowers or to the grieving. As one theologian noted,

Invoking God, calling on him in prayer, isn’t an emergency measure…something that we turn to in extremity, at the hour of death or disappointment or depression. Calling on God’s name accompanies all of human life and all human activity.

Or to borrow from the apostle Peter, all of us are to cast our cares upon Christ because he cares for us (1 Pt 5:7).

What April Knew

Towards the end of her life as April verbally processed her fears with me, she would at times bring our conversations to a conclusion and kindly say, “I don’t expect an answer from you, Peter.” The comment unnerved me. I was her husband…her best friend…her truest confidant…her pastor. Surely, I should have some answer…some hope to offer…some word to say. But with each passing day, I have come to increasingly appreciate her wisdom in those moments. My shoulders could not carry all her burdens. Nor could her’s carry mine. They were not designed to. But Christ’s could. To Him, she turned.

A few weeks later when I lost my April, my heart shattered into a million pieces like a glass striking a hard kitchen tile. Nothing made sense. Everything hurt and was out of place. But I was not alone. Though he crushed me, my God did not leave me nor forsake me. He heard me. He hears me.

Don’t talk to the dead who cannot help us as they await the resurrection. Talk to the God who hears!  

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Don’t Post…Pray

As the post coronavirus world spins about with seemingly little regard for the axis of sanity, men and women find their hearts weighted down by tomorrow’s fears. Like the soothsayers of old, they dissect the animal of social media, seeking to extract messages about the future. Equipped with unverified tidbits of truth, they take to social media, believing a barrage of tweets and articles linked to their Facebook page will convince the world that social distancing will lead to the downfall of the United States. Others fear a lack of facemask will result in thousands of needless deaths. Regardless of the fear, most American seek the same anti-dote: social media validation. This should not be the practice of the Christian. We should find our hope in the sweet closet of prayer, tucked away from buzzing highway of social media.

David wrote Psalm 3 as his world descended into chaos. His son, Absalom, had declared himself king. As David fled Jerusalem, his top advisor joined the rebellion. In the space of a few hours, the comforts of home were replaced with the fears of death. The whole world had gone against him. David writes, “Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God (Ps 3:2).” Though David’s world lacked sanity, David did not lack hope. He knew God was his shield. Though men had turned against him, David knew God had placed him on Israel’s throne. God’s could not be overthrown by a rouge prince. David placed his trust in God.

Christian have even more cause to place their trust in God because he has died for their sin. The Christian’s glory is the glory of God given to her at salvation. God died to save her, lifting her from death to life. Since God saved her, she has every reason to trust God with her coronavirus fears.

Facebook post cannot keep you or I from catching the nasty virus. Twitter battles cannot prevent the downfall of our nation. But God can. Not only can God protect us, we can trust him to protect us for he hears our cries for help. David writes, “I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill.” Though David slept in a tent while Absalom slept atop David’s castle, God heard David. Though fears may dance atop our hearts, God still hears and answers our prayers from the pit of chaos.

The Christian’s Instagram post will not change the thinking of the President, of the Governor, or of the mayor. They will not hear the Christian’s theory about what the doctors are really up to. If the truth-be-told, most of our friends will not take our concerns seriously. But God hears the cries of his people. The ruler of the universe who directs the hearts of kings and who laughs at the armies of earth hears our prayers. Our Facebook posts cannot prevent anarchy. But, God can. Our Twitter wars cannot heal the sick. But, God can. Our Instagram posts cannot keep the church from mishandling the coronavirus crisis. But, God can. E.M. Bounds notes,

National affairs need to be prayed over…Lawmakers, law judges, and law executives need leaders in Israel to pray for them. How much fewer mistakes if there was more praying done in civil matters?

Do you fear death, the destruction of the economy, or a police state? Follow David and pray to the God who hears you. To whom will you take your fears?