Here Are Three Reasons You Must Pray For The Unsaved

I belong to a facebook group where different Christian thoughts are shared. Recently, a question was posted which inspired this post. "Will You Pray At All For Someone Who Is Not willing To Submit To Christ?" That's a good question, isn't it? I believe as Christians, we all have experiences of praying for  the salvation of a friend, family member, neighbour etc and it seems the more we pray, and tell them about their need of salvation, their rebellion towards God and Christianity grows. Now, it can indeed get frustrating. So the question whether to continue in prayer for an unwilling, unrepentant sinner is, to be frank, a relevant question. In this post, I seek to answer an emphatic Yes to the question "Will You Pray At All For Someone Who Is Not willing To Submit To Christ?"

Here are my reasons

1: Prayers For The Unsaved Is A Command

In a conversation with His disciples, Jesus commanded them to pray about salvation of souls. "Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). In these words, we see embedded the necessity of prayer for souls. Why must we pray for labourers? Because "The harvest is plentiful". In other words, there are many people who have to be saved. In 1Timothy 2:1-4, Paul instructs we engage in prayers for the salvation of souls. We don't possess the ability to save anyone. Salvation is of the Lord therefore we must continually entreat Him in prayer to save sinners. Without prayer, our efforts at reaching people for the Lord will be in vain.

After planting and watering, God is the one who gives the increase. Now, if we look at the preceeding verses of Matthew 9, we will get a perfect picture of why Jesus asked for prayers for labourers to be sent: "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."(v36).

Herein is the sad state of the unbeliever; the multitudes-crowd without Christ. They are harassed and helpless under the bondage of sin. They are guilty under the wrath of God. They are without a shepherd.  They have no relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ..."Harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd"...that must break every believers' heart to say a word of prayer for the unsaved. They will not admit it; but our Lord's words are true; they are "Harassed and helpless, like sheep without shepherd". They are lost! Out of compassion, our Lord told His disciples; “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”(v37-38). Don't give up praying for the lost.

2: Only God Can Break The Unwilling Heart Of The Sinner

It must not be lost on us as believers, that our salvation is not a smart choice or good decision we made. We are not smarter than our neighbhour who hasn't yet submitted to the Lordship of Christ. The truth is, we are not Christians because we were willing to give our lives to Christ. Jesus said He chose us, not us (John 15:16). In John 6:44, we are also told "No one can come to [Jesus] unless the Father ... draws him. By our own will we cannot be saved (Ezekiel 36:26, John 1:12-13, Roman 9:18). We are Christians because of God's grace.

Before we came to Christ, we were all people who rebelled against God until grace found us. In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul describes our spiritual deadness prior to coming to Christ. He compares us to that unwilling sinner we are getting tired praying for. He seems to say, "before you came to Christ, you were just like them"; "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

That was our state. We were equally "following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience". We were no different from the unwilling unbeliever. The difference now is God's intervention. In verse 4 of Ephesians 2, after our former state has been described, we are told what God did with us: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—"

God showed us mercy. God stepped into out rebellion and broke our resistance. Knowing our former state and how merciful God has been to us, we must be patient and continue in prayer for those who seem unwilling to submit to Christ. Their unwillingness can only be broken by the Spirit of God. Don't give up. Keep praying for them. Their unwillingness is indeed a spiritual battle. Satan has blinded them to the truth. That is the more reason we must pray for them. Only God can rip off their spiritual blindness and shine lights into their hearts.

3: Someone Prayed For Your Salvation

You might not be directly aware. But I am confident your salvation is an answer to somebody's prayers. Your friend, your family member, a church in your community, a Pastor, your school chaplain, a missionary...somebody's prayer definitely has a hand in your salvation. An incident in the Bible readily comes to minpicture comes to mind. In Acts 7, Stephen's martydom by stoning is recorded:

Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen , he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord , do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.(vs58-60)

See two powerful phrases in the verses here. The first is the record that they laid Stephen's garment at the feet of Saul(v58) and secondly Stephen's prayer in v60, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them". Even at the brink of death Stephen still prays for his murderers. Immediately we step into Chapter 8, Saul's name is mentioned again. He has come into the picture. He must be important to the storyline: "And Saul approved of his execution."(v8). Fast foward to Chapter 9 we meet Saul and his encounter on the road to Damascus. He met the Lord and his life was changed. I am very convinced Paul's conversion has a relationship with Stephen's prayer; "Lord , do not hold this sin against them"

I pray you don't get tired praying for anyone's salvation. Continue in prayer and don't give up.

Christians: Channels Of Truth And God's Holiness

Christians are children of the Sovereign, Almighty, Most Holy, Most Wise and Infinite God. Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that dwell in it. We are His children He “chose in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). Once upon a time, we were sinners, children of disobedience and separated from God. But Scripture says, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Rom 5:8). He died to reconcile sinners to God. And by coming to Him through faith, we become His children. We are adopted into the family of God (Jh 1:12-13,Rom 8:14-17).

Apart from being children of God, there are different other descriptions used for the Christian. We are God’s elect. We are His chosen ones. We are His sheep. We are His servants and ambassadors. We are the salt and light of the world. These descriptions presents us with some understanding of our relationship with God. He is a Father, Shepherd, and King. He is Lord and ruler over us and His creation. If this is true of us, then as a Father, Shepherd, King and Lord over our lives; He must have expectations of us. It is said we are the hands and feet of Christ in the world. We are God’s representatives on earth with a mandate to let Him be known to the world. We are saved to show forth God’s glory to the world(Jh 15:16, 1 Pet 2:9, 2Cor 5:20).

As God’s representatives on earth, we have a mandate to make Him known, as already indicated. But if He is God–a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeabled in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; how can we mere mortal and finite beings represent Him and show forth His glory? How can we be channels by which His truth and holiness will be known?

I will offer two thoughts.

1. Know The Truth.

How can we represent or be channels of what we do not know? It is impossible. It will be an exercise in futility. We must know the truth if we are to represent the truth. Truth is what God has revealed about Himself in Scriptures. “The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify… [God]. (WSC 2A).

In Deuteronomy 4:5, Moses clearly indicated the source of the commandments he was giving the children of Israel. They were God’s very words and commands: “See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it”. These “statutes and rules” which are God’s words are to be made known because they are true. Truth is not subjective. Truth is not what other people definite it to be. Truth is what God calls truth through His self-revelation in His word.(Pr 30:5) Jh 14:6, 17:17).

The believer who doesn’t pay attention to the truth of God’s word is going to live a defeated Christian life, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Despite its importance, as humans, the tendency of forgetting the important things of the faith is high. So constantly in Scriptures, God reminds us of the importance of paying heed to His word (Joshua 1:9, Psalms 1 & 119). The reality of our forgetfulness necesscitates constant reminders: “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. (Deut 4:9). Knowing the truth also has an element of passing the truth on. “Make them known to your children and your children’s children”(Deut 4:9).

2 Live The Truth

Knowing the truth is not enough. We must live the truth:

…be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.(James 1:22-25).

Accumulation of truth is not the desired end for the believer. Living in obedience to God and His word is the desired end of biblical knowledge. I once heard a preacher say the worst sinner is the one whose theology doesn’t reflect in their lives. I agree with him. The highest level indeed of hypocrisy is to preach what we do not practice. God has called us into a life of holiness. He chose us “that we should be holy and blameless before him (Eph 1:4). We are also by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit being conformed to the image of Christ. (Rom 8:29). Because He is Holy, God calls us unto holiness(Lev 11:44, 1 Pet 1:16). Our manner of life matters to God, because we are His representatives and others see His workings in the world through our lives in our sanctification and holiness.

However, holiness is not only outward. It is also inward; “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”(Mark 7:21-23). There are people whose outward deeds will, in the eyes of men recommend them to God. But before God, they are “whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness”(Matt 23:27).

That said, it is critical we understand holiness cannot be produced by self-will. We can only be holy when we submit ourselves in obedience to God’s truth enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit. In pursuit of personal holiness, which God has called every believer to, God works and we respond: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”(Phil 1:12-13).

Holiness doesn’t also spell perfectionism. In our pursuit of holiness, we will fall and stumble sometimes. But we must not relent to keep focus on Christ our righteousness. It is in His rigtheousness we work out our righteousness. Apart from our personal holiness, we are also to be people who care and love others not only in words, but in deeds. We are to extend a hand of care and love to the society we find ourselves. We are to love one another and care for the needs of others. In love, we show the love of God to others. In love, we practice “pure religion”.

These two, I believe are just but a few ways we can be channels of God’s truth and holiness. We must never forget we are instruments and channels through whom God shows forth His truth and holiness to the world. Let us examine our lives and repent where we fall short in representing God’s truth and holiness.

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.(Matthew 5:14-16).