Prayer

Charles Spurgeon wrote:

If we cannot prevail with men for God, we will, at least, endeavour to prevail with God for men. We cannot save them, or even persuade them to be saved, but we can at least bewail their madness and entreat the interference of the Lord. Like Jeremiah, we can make it our resolve, “If ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears.” To such pathetic appeals the Lord’s heart can never be indifferent; in due time the weeping intercessor will become the rejoicing winner of souls. ¹

It is to the end of prevailing with God for the lost that we have been working towards this message, which is a summary of seven Specific prayer requests to pray on behalf of the Lost. For Christ has said, if we abide in HIM and His word abides in us, we can ask whatever we will and it will be given. (John 15:7 The meaning of this is that by staying in God's word we will have the mind of Christ with which to pray – and thus our prayers will be fashioned after the revealed will of God- and firmly fixed on faith.

Ask God to open their eyes (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

The rest of these prayers come, I think without any inherent order – but I begin with a part of the problem. They are blinded by the 'god' of this world. 2 Cor 4:3-4 says, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4)

This morning as I contemplated celebrating the freedom's of our country, my mind drifted invariably to our men and women deployed overseas at this very moment, enduring the harsh weather and living conditions and life threatening reality of combat. I considered the many times we are (rightly) called to pray for our soldiers and to intercede with the Almighty on their behalf. We have pleaded with God for their watch-care, for their success, for their safe return to their families. We have asked for wisdom in their commanding officers from the first rank of leadership all the way up to the commander in chief – as well we should.

I contemplated moving on this week from the topic of praying for the lost, to something reflecting the holiday when it occurred to me that we are locked in a battle for the freedom of the souls of men held captive to the tyranny of their own sin and the lies of the devil. Battling for men's souls is a topic worthy of continuing on a day devoted to celebrating freedom.

As we began previously to consider praying for the unsaved we talked about the need not only to do so but to fan into flame our desire to do so by seeking God in prayer, that He might give us a passion for souls; that He might enable us to see people has He sees them, to love people as He loves them.

As last week we touched the need for our hearts to be fanned into flame, this week I want to turn to the requirements for Praying for the lost as touching the actual prayer.