This grace was given to me — the least of all the saints — to proclaim the incalculable riches of Christ.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
(Ephesians 3:8,13)
Paul was always praying for the unsaved families he knew, because he knew God is sovereign over every family in heaven and on earth. That’s what it means for every family to be named from him.
And that’s what gives us hope in our mission. God is sovereign over every human heart. He’s the only one who can turn a heart of stone to a heart of flesh.
And we have the opportunity to talk to him anytime and ask him to do it! Why don’t we take advantage of that?
A survey of regular church attenders found that more Christians prayed to win the lottery last month than prayed to win their neighbor to Christ. We’re often more focused on surviving and spending than on saving the people we love.
That’s why Paul repeatedly reminds us to pray for people to be saved: “Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ” (Colossians 4:2-3).
There are three encouragements he’s giving us as we pray for our One More who needs to know Jesus:
Be devoted in prayer.
Don’t be hit and miss. Pray for your unbelieving family and friends regularly. Have a system for it. Don’t give up on it.
Be alert in prayer.
Don’t be casual and laid-back. Stay alert and awake, like a guard at Fort Knox. If the guard at Fort Knox falls asleep on his job, he loses money. If we fall asleep in prayer, we lose lives.
Be thankful in prayer.
Don’t be doubtful. Remember how God’s answered your prayers in the past. Trust him that he’ll answer again, and thank him in advance!
Like Paul, we need to keep praying for God to open the door to speak the mystery of Christ to the One More he’s placed in our lives.
Have you prayed for someone who is far from God in the last week?
Intercessory prayer is the first and all-important task in evangelism. The divine order is to talk to God about men, until the door is definitely open to talk to men about God.
(Lewis Sperry Chafer)