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After a recent tragedy, one that is all too common, there was some level of open criticism for expressions of prayer as a means to offer relief or comfort. A call for action, in place of prayer, …
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After a recent tragedy, one that is all too common, there was some level of open criticism for expressions of prayer as a means to offer relief or comfort. A call for action, in place of prayer, received more criticism. We have so much contention surrounding our differences these days. As a man who believes in God and believes that Jesus Christ is not only my savior, but the savior of the world, I may disagree with those who dismiss prayer outright. So why do I pray to God? Why do I call out in the name of Jesus Christ for relief and guidance? Why do we call out to God who permits tragedy and violence? How can I turn to a God that I believe to be all powerful who still allows bad things to happen to good people? I can call out to God because I believe he is my father. In Romans 8:16 we read, “... that we are the children of God.”
If he is our father and we are his children, it would stand to reason that when we call out to him in prayer, he will listen.
Why do bad things happen to good people? Almost from the beginning wicked and evil influences have been a part of our mortal experience. Sometimes bad things happen because of our choices, sometimes they happen due to the choices of others, and others happen because we live in a fallen world subject to mortality. Suffering and sorrow are not an indicator that God doesn’t care, or that he is powerless to save, but that he understands things from an eternal perspective that we can not yet understand.
It requires faith to believe in God and that we are his. It requires faith to endure suffering and sorrow. That faith fills me with hope when I am discouraged. It gives me direction and purpose. My faith allows me to keep moving forward believing that all my losses today are temporary. That though my flesh may be weak, in him I can be strong. I have a hope of life beyond this mortal existence, a life where all our tears can be dried and our sorrows lifted. I believe in a God who will ”… bind up the brokenhearted … and return … beauty for ashes,” Isaiah 61:1-3.
(Andy Jacobsen is president of the Cody Wyoming Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
