Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Can We Pray for God to Teach Someone a Lesson?

Transcript

Can We Pray for God to Teach Someone a Lesson? · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Well, can we pray that God would teach someone a lesson?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Can we pray for God to disrupt and make their
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: life hard all to get their attention? It's an interesting
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: question from Tiffany today. Pastor John, Hello, and thank you
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: for the podcast. I know the Bible says to love
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. I
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: want to pray for God to change their heart and ways,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: but sometimes I want to pray that they are affected
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: by their actions so that they will wake up and
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: change their ways. For example, at my job, there's rampant
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: negligence that has been brought to my boss's attention multiple times.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: This negligence could seriously harm or kill someone. My boss
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: doesn't like the confrontation and doesn't address the issue. Is
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: it wrong to want them to be shaken up by
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: some event to change their ways? Or it is praying
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: someone gets taught a lesson the same as I told
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: you so? Or is all of this un Christian to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: begin with. Psalm seventy three comes to my mind and
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: seems to check this kind of thinking. Immediate justice isn't
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: something that often happens, and we shouldn't necessarily look for it.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: To happen before Christ returns. But what do you think
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: can we pray for someone to be taught a lesson?
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I start with the conviction from Jesus in Luke six
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: twenty eight that Christians are to bless those who curse you,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: pray for those who abuse you. So I think it
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: is right that we should seek the good of our
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: enemies when we pray, especially the ultimate good their salvation.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: So if we pray that they be taught a lesson,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: we would be praying that the lesson would bless them,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: save them. That's the principle. That's the basic thing I
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: would say, if you're going to do it, do it savingly.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: It's not and I told you so, it's not a gutcha,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: but rather I want your ultimate blessing. That's what I'm
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: seeking in my prayer. But let me back up and
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: put this question in a particular framework of what the
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Bible teaches about prayer. This was really helpful for me
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: to think about this. Maybe it'll be helpful for others.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: This question really is part of a larger question of
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: how detailed our prayers should be when it comes to
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: pleading with God to accomplish something in a particular way.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: In other words, if we have an ultimate outcome in
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: mind that we want God to bring about, like saving
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: a particular lost person, how detailed should we get in
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: praying for God to do it in certain ways or
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: to say it another way? How many secondary causes of
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: a desired effect should we ask? Four? Let me illustrate
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: with a couple of pictures. When Jesus taught his disciples
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: to pray, he began with the most general, all inclusive prayer, namely,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Hallowed be your Name. So this is a prayer that
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: God would see to it that his name is honored, reverenced, treasured, glorified.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Do it, Lord, cause that to happen. And at that
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: point in the prayer, he could have just stopped right
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: that's everything. He could have just stopped. That covers everything, folks.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: If everything happens to the hallowing of my name, the
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: glorifying of my name, the treasuring of my name, it's over.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: That's the end of the universe. That's the point of everything.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: He could have just stopped right there. The hallowing and
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: the glorifying of God's name is the ultimate goal of
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: all things. But he didn't stop there. He tells us
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: to pray some specifics underneath the hallowing of his name, namely,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Thy Kingdom come, and the I will be done on
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: earth as it is in heaven. So two specific secondary
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: causes to the ultimate purpose of the hallowing of God's name,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: that He would reign in people's lives and over the earth,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: and that those lives would be obedient to His revealed will,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: and that would result in the hallowing of his name,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: the glorifying and honoring of his name. Then Paul gets
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: even more specific in Romans ten one, and he shows
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: that we don't merely just pray for the hallowing of
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: his name or the reign in people's lives, or the
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: doing of his will. We also pray that people be saved,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: be redeemed, be rescued from their sin. Brothers, my heart's
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: desire and prayer to God for them is that they
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: may be saved Romans ten one. So now we have
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: several secondary causes prayed for that God would reign in
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: people's lives, that they might be saved, that they might
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: do His will on earth, that the hallowing of his name,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: the glorifying of his name, would come to pass. But
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Paul and the Psalms take us into more specifics, more
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: secondary causes. They pray, for example, in the Phesians one
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: eighteen and psalmone nineteen eighteen, that God would open people's
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: eyes to see wonderful things in the Bible. So the
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: New Testament saints did not just pray for people to
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: be saved, but also prayed for what needed to be
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: done for people to be saved. They got to have
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: their eyes open that they can see the glories of Christ.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: But Paul gets even more granular in his prayers and
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: asks in first the Saloness three to one that the
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: word of God would run and be glorified. In other words,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: he's not content to pray that people's eyes would be opened,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: but that the word of God would in fact be
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: effective in opening their eyes. So he's moving back down
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: the causal chain here and asking God to act in
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: producing certain secondary causes that bring about the ultimate thing
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: he's concerned about. And Jesus takes us even a level
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: below that in the kind of causes that bring about
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: such things. He says in Matthew nine thirty eight, pray
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: the Lord of the harvest that he would send laborers
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: into the harvest. Now these are the people who speak
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: the word of the Lord, which will open people's eyes,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: which will lead them to salvation, which will lead them
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: to obedience, which will lead them to the hallowing of
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: God's name. So you can see where this is going.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: I'm pointing out that the Bible does not simply teach
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: us to pray for the ultimate end of things, like
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the glorifying of God's name and then stop. It teaches
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: us to pray for layers of causes that the Bible
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: itself reveals do in fact lead to the glorifying of
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: God's name, Which means that the question I'm being asked is,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: in effect, is it biblical to pray that one of
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: those causes leading to the ultimate effect would be, Lord,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: teach this person a lesson in order to bring them
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: to repentance and faith and obedience and the glorifying of
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: your name. Is that biblically warranted? For example, if a
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: person is making a practice of cheating on his income
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: taxes and he just not telling the whole truth for
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: the irs, and he won't pay any attention to your rebukes,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: You've seen it, you understand it. You're telling me that's
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: not wrong. A Christian doesn't act that way. It's deceptive,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: change your behavior, and he doesn't do it, he won't repent.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Should we not only pray that he come to repentance
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: and leave the method by which he's sinning, but should
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: we pray that something happened to him in order to
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: wake him up from his sinful way. My answer is this,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: we may pray for particular ways for him to be
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: taught a lesson for his good, but we should be
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: humble and careful not to presume to be God and
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: to know more than we do. The reason I say
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: this is first because of Psalm eighty three sixteen. Here's
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: what it says. This is a prayer, now fill their
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: HM.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: So the Psalmist doesn't just pray that they would seek
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: God's face, but that they would be shamed for what
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: they're doing, and that that shame would bring them to
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: seek God's face. So that's a biblical example of praying
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: that somebody be taught a lesson. The basic answer is yes.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: But the reason I say we should be humble and
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: careful not to presume to be God is that we
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: don't know what the best way is for God to
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: bring a person to his senses and say we don't know.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: We can guess. We can look at the Bible for pointers,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: but we're not God. We should be careful not to
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: tell God how he should do what's best to do.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: If there are biblical pointers, then we can follow those
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: pointers in praying for secondary causes. But I would not
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: make a practice of going beyond scripture and prescribing to
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: God how he should accomplish his biblio revealed purposes.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Wonderful. Thank you Pester John, and thanks for joining us today.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: If you have a question to ask Pastor John, find
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: a link to email us and find our complete episode
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: archive at askpastor John dot com. Over two thousand episodes
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: now to browser search in each of them, with audio
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and full transcripts fully available for you. Next time, Pastor
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: John will offer seven encouragements for parents of prodigals. But
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: don't miss it. I'm Tony Ranky. I'll see you on Thursday.