In the Face of Evil, Prayer Is the Most Rational and Effective Response

Even if you think otherwise, the aftermath of a church congregation’s mass murder is the wrong time to say so. When you see a mass murder unfold on the television screen or read about it online, let me tell you the single-most important and effective thing you can do in response.

It also happens to be the single-most important and effective thing you can do on a sustained basis to turn the hearts of evil men, to strengthen the courage and resolve of good men and women, and to inspire the ideas and actions that bring change. You can pray. It’s as simple as this: God is sovereign, and every good and perfect gift comes from Him. That includes changed hearts. It includes comfort that only He can provide. It includes the courage to be the “good guy with the gun” who can (and, reports suggest, yesterday did) stop a rampage in its tracks. It includes the clear mind to consider and enact policies that might make a difference.

So, yes, if you’re not praying and thinking in response to mass murders like the attack on the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, your response isn’t as effective as it could be. If there’s one thing that’s clear from the spate of mass killings in the United States, it’s that we need God to move. But don’t tell this to the angry Twitter Left. Yesterday, as Christians bled and died, the Left’s “thoughts and prayers” brigade immediately and viciously attacked those whose immediate response to the tragedy was the most effective response.

I won’t bore you with all the vicious, sanctimonious tweets, but the Huffington Post has an approving roundup here. Their messages were theologically illiterate, spiteful, and ridiculously insensitive in the face of a crime so clearly directed at believing men and women.

The simple and stupid version of the argument is that “prayer doesn’t work” — either because the critic believes the God of the Bible is no more real than a Flying Spaghetti Monster or because he sees the persistence of evil as refuting the efficacy of prayer. While I disagree with atheists, my quarrel right now isn’t with their disbelief, it’s with their choosing this moment to not only mock Christians but to also display their ignorance of basic Christian theology. You see, the presence of evil — especially the increasing presence of evil — demands a prayerful response. Scripture is full of examples of God’s people crying out to him in great distress. Jesus cried out to God in His great distress. Time and again God responds in ways that bring healing and restoration to broken people and broken nations. He always responds in some way — often not the way we ask or demand.

Read more at  National Review