Written by Wendy Neill
Do you struggle with how to pray for those who don’t know Christ? I have a younger brother who walked away from Jesus as a teenager. I have been praying for him for 30 years, sometimes in tears, sometimes with my face on the ground. To be perfectly honest with you, I get weary. I believe the Bible teaches that we all have free will, so what’s the point in praying for him? He has chosen to reject God. Can God make him accept his free gift of grace?
During one such time of weariness, I found myself in a Harding Lectureship class titled “Praying for Lost Loved Ones.” The speaker reminded us that God desires for all to be saved (2 Pet. 3:9), and that Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10; John 3:16-17). He also recommended a book that I later read called Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets. I didn’t agree with everything in the book, but it inspired me to intercede, to mediate, and to pursue reconciliation through prayer.
Between that lecture, the book, further Bible study, and prayer, this is the list I made for myself to intercede for my brother.
I will pray
1. That God will lift the veil covering his eyes so he can see the truth (2 Cor. 4:3,4).
2. That God will grant him “repentance leading him to a knowledge of the truth, and that he will come to his senses and escape from the trap of the devil” (2 Tim. 2:25-26).
3. That God will send “workers” into his life (Matt. 9:37-38).
4. That every philosophy that sets itself up in his mind against the knowledge of God will be destroyed (2 Cor. 10:3-5).
Who needs your intercession? A loved one? A friend? A neighbor? A certain mission field? How about the leaders of your own country? Instead of complaining about them, intercede for them! See Ezekiel 22:30-31 for how important that is.
OK, I’m fired up again! Pardon me, but I need to get on my knees now.