Welcome back to the podcast. Today's question is not uncommon. We very often hear from Christians who came to embrace Reformed theology in college or shortly thereafter, and those same believers are now having children of their own, and they're now building a family with children, children that may or may not be elect in Jesus Christ.

And that reality raises huge questions for young Christian parents, like a young mom named Alex. She writes in, "Pastor John, my life has been different ever since I first heard you speak at Passion as a college student. I'm so thankful for your life and ministry, and I'm getting emotional as I write this.

By God's grace and through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, your teaching and the resources at Desiring God have made such a huge eternal impact in my life. Thank you." My question to you is this. My son is not even two months old, and he has significant health concerns.

We've known about the issues for about six months, and during this time, God has been working something wonderful in my heart as I've submerged myself in Scripture like never before. However, I find myself consistently discouraged by this fact. I know that Scripture does not guarantee my son's physical healing, and it also does not guarantee my son's salvation.

I know that because I have been saved by grace, I have a glorious hope, and these trials that I am facing are temporary. So that gives me comfort for myself. But what about my son? I find myself grasping for some sort of truth to give me hope for him, but I can't seem to find any.

I know that God will accomplish His purpose for an overall good, but He doesn't guarantee my son's eternal good. I know it isn't sinful to feel this way, but I can't seem to be satisfied with God accomplishing His ultimate good purpose knowing that it may come with the cost of my son's life.

Is this just something that I need to accept? Let's take that last sentence of Alex, "I can't seem to be satisfied with God accomplishing His ultimate good purpose knowing that it may come with the cost of my son's life." I wonder if it might be helpful to point out to Alex and to the rest of us that in this world we're not supposed to be "satisfied" with sickness and death and lostness the way we will be in the age to come when all of history is complete and every thread of the tapestry of providence is woven into its place and we have been completely perfected so that we no longer see through a glass darkly.

I wonder. In other words, maybe Alex is asking for more now than the New Testament says we can have or should have. Now, why would I say that? Let me give some reasons. I'll sum up these three reasons with the words "tears, prayers, and deeds." Tears, prayers, and deeds.

And all three of these show that God intends for us to experience a kind of holy dissatisfaction with this world the way it is until He comes. So first, tears. Listen to Paul talk about his own effort to deal with the lostness of his kinsmen. This would be like Alex thinking about her son, I think.

Romans 9, 1-3. "I am speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have a great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." Let that sink in. It's great and it's unceasing. That's just almost unthinkable for the man who said, "Rejoice in the Lord," and again I say rejoice.

And rejoice in all things. Rejoice at all times. So he's got joy while this is happening. And this is happening while he's got joy. "I have great sorrow and unceasing," mark it, "unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." In other words, they're cut off from Christ.

They're perishing. That's the reason he's in great sorrow and unceasing anguish. And listen as he describes his ministry with those who reject Christ. And even with the strugglers who believe. He says in Philippians 3, 18, "For many of whom I've told you often and now tell you with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ." He's weeping over these enemies.

And Acts 20, 31, "Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears." Or Romans 12, 15, "Listen, weep with those who weep." It seems to me that all of this is Paul's way of saying history has not yet arrived at a point, and we have not yet been sanctified to a point where it would be fitting for anguish and tears to go out of our lives over the pain and lostness of others, especially our own families.

It is possible to weep, to be in anguish without questioning God's wisdom and goodness and power. Yes, it is. Let me say that again because I think she's feeling a tension that she feels may be impossible. It's not impossible. It is possible to weep without questioning God's wisdom and goodness and power.

Second, prayers. I said tears, prayers, deeds. So prayers. We are supposed to have a holy dissatisfaction with the world as it is because God tells us to pray that things would be different. That's the whole point of prayer. Ask God to do things to make things different. Not praying that everything stay exactly the same.

There's no point in praying. James said, "You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions." In other words, things would be different if we prayed. Then he teaches us in the next chapter, "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed." It's not wrong to pray for healing as though it were calling God into question, which means we should not be satisfied with sickness in a way that rules out prayer for healing.

And Paul says in Romans 10, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved," which means we should not be satisfied with anyone's unbelief in such a way that it keeps us from praying earnestly for their conversion. So prayer itself is a witness that God intends for us to have a holy dissatisfaction with the way things are.

Number three, deeds. Deeds. We should have a holy dissatisfaction with the world as it is because God tells us to do deeds that make it different. Not just tears over it, not just prayers for it, but deeds to change it. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your Father who's in heaven." Every commandment in the Bible is a commandment that unleashes changes in the world.

The world becomes different every time someone prays and acts. So here's the upshot for Alex. Not only is it inevitable and right that her heart should ache for her son's healing and salvation, but I think she should be encouraged that until God gives her some comforting evidence that his purposes are otherwise—like Paul gets, for example, in 2 Corinthians 12, 7 and 9 about the thorn in the flesh, he stopped praying that this thorn would be removed because God gave him evidence that he had other plans.

But until we can have some kind of comforting evidence, she should take heart that the persistence of her prayers are good evidence that God has not decided against her request. I think that's the point of Jesus' parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart, Luke 18, 1.

So Alex, that's my prayer for you, and I will pray as soon as we're done here. That's my prayer for you. Don't lose heart. Push against the darkness with tears and prayers and deeds, but don't push against God. Trust God. He's with you in this world-changing battle. He's not against you.

Why don't we, before we go, just pray for Alex here. Father, we just for a moment here pause and ask that you would touch her son and grant him healing, and that you touch her heart, help her to know and make the distinction between pushing against darkness, pushing against unbelief, pushing against sickness, pushing against sin, and pushing against you.

It's not an easy distinction for people to make, and we ask for her and for others that they would discern that. And so make this helpful for her, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for the question, Alex. This is sobering. Thank you for inviting us into your life, into your struggles, and into your pain, and into your prayers and your longings.

It is sobering to be brought inside of your lives. And if you have a question for Pastor John, you can send it in to us. Go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn and click on the box that says "Submit a Question." Send us your thoughts and struggles and questions via email.

Thank you for sending those along. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Friday. 1. What is the purpose of a prayer? 2. What is the purpose of a prayer? 3. Why is it