Back to school, back to prayer

by David Haberstock

As I write this, summer is over and the annual round of programs are beginning again in church, school, and society. With the return to school comes a return to regular life, patterns, and habits. And with that return, be sure to renew your prayers! Especially for the world around you. 

Martin Luther, teaching on John 14:12, said: “But we, as Christians, must know that the whole system of earthly government stands and remains for its allotted time solely through God’s order or command and the prayers of Christians.” This is a profound truth. All good order which Satan, the world, and our sinful nature would gladly overthrow only continues because first, God has ordered things in a certain way, and second, because Christians pray. 

God’s order in the world is His design for the world and for human society. Structures such as marriage, the family, parental authority (and, by extension, schools and government), no matter how they are attacked and fall apart, will always reestablish themselves because they are the very fabric of reality. They are the natural law which is embedded in the universe and written on the hearts of mankind in our consciences. 

God’s commands have ordered things a certain way. Tyranny—a perverting of that order—only lasts so long before things fall apart and order manifests itself again. Human sin always seeks to twist God’s order for its own purposes, but the good design of God always reasserts itself because it is established in the laws of the universe. You might as well fight against gravity as fight against God’s order for creation and human society. 

And yet, despite this command of God which orders our universe, it does not stop sinful humans and the “world”—of which Satan is the prince (John 14:30)—from perverting this order for their own purposes. This is why your prayers—collectively as the Church in Divine Service and individually as a Christian—are so important. God upholds all things, including His own order, for the sake of His saints. 

Our Lord commands us to pray “Thy kingdom come,” by which we are asking that the Lord “breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature” (Small Catechism, Explanation to the Third Petition).

When we Christians pray, God listens, answers, and preserves the world for our sake. Our Lord commands us to pray “Thy kingdom come,” by which we are asking that the Lord “breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature” (Small Catechism, Explanation to the Third Petition). 

As evidence of this, Luther cites numerous biblical examples of unbelieving households (Laban due to Jacob) and pagan nations which prospered because of the prayers of the believers within them (such as Abraham and Lot, Joseph, Daniel, even Naaman, and so on). However, when a government begins to persecute the Christians who would pray for that nation, when such prayers are silenced or driven out, then comes the downfall of such nations, no matter how powerful they have been. 

Everything that the world has Jesus grants because of His Christians in it. As aliens and strangers in this world, we are “as having nothing, yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:10). All that is within the world is the Lord’s (Psalm 50:10), even though the world does not believe such things but instead trusts in themselves and in their own might. The world even tramples on Christians, not recognizing that we who trust in Him uphold the world through our prayers. And this is told to us for our instruction and consolation. For the Lord wants to work through us greater things in this world than He Himself accomplished (John 14:12). Because we are baptized in His name and have His Word and Sacraments by which He imparts His salvation, He is calling, and has called, more people to faith through His Christians than He Himself did during His earthly life. Thus, the world is preserved for our sake. For He loves us and saved us in Jesus, and has left us here to do His work. Through Him, your prayers and witness are powerful. 

So as the kids go back to school: pray. Pray for the salvation of your children and grandchildren. Pray for their nurture in life-giving knowledge and skills. Pray that they remain in their baptismal faith. Pray, if they have not been baptized, that the Lord would bring it to pass. Pray, if they have departed from that faith, that the Lord would “follow them all the days of [their] life” (Psalm 23:6), until the Holy Spirit pounces on them, bringing them back to the faith of their baptism. Pray that our government would turn to the Lord so that they might govern with the wisdom that comes from above. Pray for your congregation and church, that the light of the Gospel would shine through your congregation increasing your faithfulness and bringing new lambs into Christ’s sheepfold. Pray. For the Lord listens and responds.

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Rev. David Haberstock is Lutheran Church–Canada’s Central Regional Pastor.

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