My dad had a knack for creating his own cliches. One of them was something he used to say when some minor misfortune or inconvenience happened to someone in the family: “Let that be a lesson to you.”
Maybe that idea has become part of my mindset because when I’m facing adversity, I wonder if God has a lesson that He wants me to learn from it. I sometimes wonder that about other people’s trials and tribulations as well, and I’ve even prayed that for people (though not in a vindictive way).
I heard a podcast recently that relates to this idea. A listener to “Ask Pastor John” asked John Piper if we should pray for God to teach people lessons in their lives. A woman wrote in referencing people neglecting their duties at work and asked:
Is it wrong to want them to be shaken up by some event to change their ways, or is praying that someone gets taught a lesson the same as saying, “I told you so”? Or is all of this unchristian to begin with? Psalm 73 comes to my mind and seems to check this kind of thinking. Immediate justice isn’t something that often happens, and we shouldn’t necessarily look for it to happen before Christ returns. But what do you think? Can we pray for someone to be taught a lesson?
It's an interesting question, and since the woman’s question sounds like she’s describing more of a desire for someone to get what’s coming to them, that’s how Piper addresses the idea. Framing his answer around the idea of praying for your enemies, he begins:
I start with the conviction from Jesus in Luke 6:28 that Christians are to “bless those who curse you [and] pray for those who abuse you.” So, I think it is right that we should seek the good of our enemies when we pray, especially the ultimate good: their salvation. So, if we pray that they be taught a lesson, we would be praying that the lesson would bless them, save them. That’s the principle. That’s the basic thing I would say. If you’re going to do it, do it savingly. It’s not an “I told you so” — it’s not a “Gotcha!” — but rather, “I want your ultimate blessing.” That’s what I’m seeking in my prayer.
Piper notes that the real question is “how detailed our prayers should be when it comes to pleading with God to accomplish something in a particular way.” He rephrases the question as “how many secondary causes of a desired effect should we ask for?”
Related: Sunday Thoughts: Why Prayer Is Powerful
Naturally, he goes to scripture to find his answers starting with the Lord’s Prayer. In Matthew 6:9-10, Jesus began His model prayer for His followers like this: “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
“The hallowing and the glorifying of God’s name is the ultimate goal of all things,” Piper points out, adding that there “are two specific secondary causes to the ultimate purpose of the hallowing of God’s name — that he would reign in people’s lives and over the earth, and that those lives would be obedient to his revealed will.” These two ideas should be part of all of our prayers for others.
Piper mentions other aims for our prayers for others:
- That they will receive salvation: “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1, ESV).
- That God will open their eyes: “…having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…” (Ephesians 1:18, ESV), “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18, ESV).
- That God’s Word will spread: “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you” (2 Thessalonians 3:1, ESV).
- That we or someone else will share the Gospel with them: “…therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38, ESV).
“I’m pointing out that the Bible does not simply teach us to pray for the ultimate end of things — like the glorifying of God’s name — and then stop,” Piper states. “It teaches us to pray for layers of causes that the Bible itself reveals do in fact lead to the glorifying of God’s name.”
Piper concludes by saying that we can sometimes pray for God to teach someone a lesson — as the Psalmist does in Psalm 83:16: “Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O LORD.” — but we should do so humbly and not presuming to speak for God.
As always with our prayers, we should check our hearts before we come before the Lord. May we have the right attitude when we pray for others.
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