I’m finding myself feeling very pensive this morning and am reminded of this poignant prayer from John Piper…
O Lord, the suffering in the world is so widespread and the pain is so great! Have mercy, and waken the souls of suffering millions to the hope of some relief now and unsurpassed joy in the age to come. Send your church, O God, with relief and with the word of the Gospel that there is forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ and that no suffering here is worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to the children of God.
Protect your church, Father, from callous thoughts about calamities that leave millions destitute, and protect her also from her critics, like Job’s wife, who cannot trust the wisdom and power and goodness of Christ in the midst of inexplicable misery.
Oh, help our unbelief. Incline our hearts to your Word and to its assurances that you “work all things according to the counsel of your will” and that “no purpose of yours can be thwarted” and that you are doing good and acting wisely in ways that we cannot now even dream.
Keep us in peace, O Lord, and forbid that we murmur and complain. Grant us humble and submissive hearts under your mighty hand. Teach us to wait and watch for your final and holy purposes in all things. Grant that we would “rejoice in hope” even when present circumstances bring us to tears. Open the eyes of our hearts to see the greatness of our inheritance in Christ, and send us with tender hands to touch with mercy the miseries of the world.
In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
(“Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ”, p. 54, John Piper)
(Todd)
