Is praying for protection pointless if life always has suffering? John Piper answers
Notable Bible teacher and author John Piper recently addressed the question of whether there is a point to praying for protection when suffering is an inevitable part of life.
In a recent episode of his podcast “Ask Pastor John,” a listener named Belinda asked about the purpose of praying for protection “when we know that this earthly life is full of suffering and hardships.”
Belinda discussed how one of her children drowned to death in a swimming pool a few years ago, shortly before her fifth birthday, and how, recently, her family was robbed at gunpoint.
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“I do still actually pray numerous times for God to keep my family safe and healthy, but I don’t know if there is a point to these prayers. He didn’t protect my daughter from drowning. He didn’t protect us from criminals,” Belinda said.
“I have no guarantee that my family and I will be spared trials in the future. What, why, how should I be praying regarding the topic of protection when it feels so utterly pointless?”
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Piper replied by noting that “we should be praying that God would protect us from any test of our faith that would exceed the grace He promises to provide for the endurance of it and the ability to grow by it and glorify Him in it.”
Piper cited 1 Corinthians 10:13, which says God “will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
“If God removes His protection in any area of our lives, which He regularly does, these are the purposes: to help us endure, to increase our reliance on Him in loss, and to glorify the sufficiency of His grace to carry us through — even with joy — in the loss,” Piper added.
On why Christians should pray for protection, Piper cited multiple reasons, including God telling believers do to so, “because the biblical saints prayed for protection,” “because there is protection we will not have if we don’t ask for it,” “God uses it to accomplish His purposes in more ways than we can imagine,” and because God “loves to give good things to His children who ask Him.”
Regarding the heartbreaking experiences of the listener, Piper noted that “for every one of those” experiences, there have been “a thousand acts of God to protect you from sin, from Satan, from sickness, from sabotage.”
“You do not pray for protection in vain, Belinda. You don’t. It’s not pointless. God has wise and good and righteous reasons for why some thorns are not taken away and some children die,” he added.
“The very fact that you are alive and that you have written to us means God has protected you in thousands of ways to bring you to where you are. He is your Father. He is sovereign. He is good. It is never pointless to ask Him for what you need.”
