Today, after every tragic shooting, I hear the same spirit of mockery: “Where is your prayer now? What good is it?”

Robert Westman, the Minnesota “transwoman” who murdered two small children at a Catholic church, inscribed “Where is your God now?” on his rifle, in a supreme case of insult added to injury. Perhaps Westman didn’t recognize the discredit he was bringing to the anti-Christian cause in appropriating their language and taking it to its logical conclusion.

But giving credit to the atheist, or anti-Christian, point of view is the mistake Christians must not make — to think prayer failed because it did not stop evil in the moment. Prayer is not magic to erase the consequences of a fallen world. Prayer is communion with God, and through it we align ourselves with His will. The hope of Christianity is not that evil will never touch us here, but that Christ has overcome the world and offers us eternal salvation.

Demons want us to waste our energy building a kingdom on earth, knowing our human capacity for evil and that it will fail. God has already given us a glorious republic, not perfect, but the best hope for humanity on this side of eternity. Yet the greatest gift is not even the republic. It is the eternal salvation we have through Christ Jesus.

Demons bait us with the dream of an earthly paradise without pain, without suffering, and without evil. But that would negate the very purpose of Christ. Our hope is not in man’s kingdom, but in the eternal kingdom of our Lord Christ Jesus.

A Marker for Christians and Citizens

Let us not forget: the role of government is to punish evil, not to unleash evil upon the land or allow it to go unchecked. The Democrat Party has shown itself unfit to govern this republic, having unleashed legions of demons on this great country.

When we pray, we pray to God through Christ Jesus for the salvation of our souls. But God also gave us government to restrain wickedness and uphold order. This republic itself is a creation of God. We hold this truth to be self-evident, and the preamble to the Constitution reminds us that we must secure the blessings of liberty for our posterity.

It is time we govern this country as it was meant to be governed. Not with empty “thoughts and prayers,” but by fulfilling the duty God has already given: to put down evil and secure His blessings. As Christians living in this republic, we do not lose faith in Christ Jesus. We continue in prayer, but we also demand that our leaders do their jobs.