PRAYER FOR THE LOST
ROMANS 10:1
James Hudson Taylor III related this testimony of the salvation of his grandfather, the founder of the China Inland Mission. Taylor wrote,
But James Hudson Taylor was not a Christian. At 17, working in a bank, he was beginning to be influenced by society and a group of friends not interested in spiritual concerns.
His mother was deeply burdened for him. Once when she was visiting friends and relatives for a few days she determined to set aside a particular day to pray for her son. She knew he would be at home rather than at the bank that day. Fasting, she knelt and prayed, 'Lord, do a new work in my son's heart.'
Meanwhile, James Hudson Taylor slipped into his father's study and there saw a tract. 'These tracts always begin with an interesting story,' he mused. 'I'll read that part of it.' Titled 'The Finished Work of Christ,' the thought attracted him. 'Why was the writer trying to emphasize the finished work of Christ?'
The tract told how Jesus had done all that is necessary to make salvation possible for anyone who believes. And as James Hudson Taylor stood in his father's study, the message of that simple tract caused him to receive Jesus Christ as his Savior.
A few days later when his mother returned, she was thrilled to learn what had happened. But she already knew. It almost caused a family row, for he thought that his sister, Amelia, had told her. 'No,' his mother said, 'I knew that day as I prayed for you that God had heard and answered my prayer.'(1)
R. A. Torrey had a similar experience of answered prayer. Torrey prayed daily for two lost men during his first pastorate, but Torrey left the church without seeing the men's salvation. Torrey wrote,
I went to Germany for further study, then took another pastorate in Minneapolis, but I kept on praying every day for those two persons. I went back to the place where I began my ministry to hold a series of meetings, praying every day for the conversion of those two persons. Then one night in that series of meetings, when I gave the invitation for all who would accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, those two people arose side by side. There was no special reason why they should be side by side, for they were not relatives. Oh, and when I saw those two persons for whom I had prayed every day through all those years standing up side by side to accept the Lord Jesus Christ, what an overwhelming sense came over my soul that there is a God.(2)
Charles H. Spurgeon attributed his salvation to the prayers of parents. Spurgeon said, "My own conversion is a result of prayer, long, affectionate, earnest, and importunate. Parents prayed for me; God heard their cries, and here I am to preach the gospel."(3)
John Hyde arrived in India in 1892. Hyde was known as "praying Hyde." The missionary prayed fervently until God used him to win four souls to Christ each day.(4)
I. Why a Christian should pray for the lost
A. Because Jesus prayed for the lost (Is. 53:12; Mt. 6:10; Lk. 22:44, 23:34-47; Jn. 17:20)
'Father, forgive them!' thus did he pray,
E'en while his life-blood flowed fast away;
Praying for sinners while in such woe-
No one but Jesus ever loved so.
Blessed Redeemer! Precious Redeemer!
Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree;
Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading-
Blind and unheeding-dying for me!(5)
B. Because the disciples prayed for the lost (Mt. 5:44; Mk. 9:29)
C. Because Paul prayed for the lost (Acts 26:29; 2 Cor. 5:20; Rom. 9:3)
D. Because the church prayed for the lost (1 Tim. 2:1)
Christians are encouraged to pray for the lost because God's people in the Bible prayed for the lost. God revealed in the Bible that his will was to save the lost (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9). John wrote that God hears the believers who pray in the Lord's will (1 Jn. 5:14-15). Therefore, God hears the prayers of Christians who pray for the lost.
II. How a Christian should pray for the lost
A. With a conviction that people are lost (Rom. 10:1)
Morris Townsend wrote, "It is hard, due to prejudice on our part, to accept the Biblical fact that our loved ones, our children, our dearest friends who are out of Christ are indwelt by Satan and are serving him-though morally upright they may be." Townsend added, "As long as we say 'My boy is a good boy,' 'My husband is a good man,' there is little hope of their salvation."(6)
James F. Eaves said, "Praying for the lost to be saved recognizes their perilous condition."(7)
B. With identification with the needs of the lost (2 Sam. 18:33, 19:4; Jer. 8:20-21; Rom. 9:3)
1. Abraham identified with the needs of Lot (Gen. 19:29).
2. Moses identified with the needs of Israel (Ex. 32:32; Num. 14:19-20; Ps. 106:23).
3. Stephen identified with the needs of his murderers (Acts 7:60).
Augustine believed that Paul's conversion was the result of the prayers of the persecuted church.(8)
C. With tears of compassion for the lost (Pss. 119:136, 158, 126:5-6; Is. 38:5, 66:8; Jer. 9:1; Jl. 2:17; Lk. 19:41; Acts 20:31; Heb. 5:7)
Charles H. Spurgeon wrote, "Winners of souls are first weepers for souls."(9)
J. Oswald Sanders recounted, "General Booth received a message from one of his captains that the work was so hard he could make no progress. The General sent back a reply of two words: 'Try tears.' Success visited that corps."(10)
A bishop heard the entreaties of Monica for her son Augustine and said, "Go thy way, and God bless thee, for it is not possible that the son of these tears should perish."(11)
D. With faith (Mt. 18:19; Mk. 10:27)
George Mueller testified, "I have been praying every day for fifty-two years for two men, sons of a friend of my youth. They are not converted yet, but they will be. How can it be otherwise when we have the unchanging promises of God!"(12)
E. With the right motive (Jn. 14:13-14)
R. A. Torrey explained, "For example, many a woman is praying for the conversion of her husband. That certainly is a most proper thing to ask; but many a woman's motive in asking for the conversion of her husband is entirely improper, it is selfish. She desires that her husband may be converted because it would be so much more pleasant for her to have a husband who sympathized with her; or it is so painful to think that her husband might die and be lost forever. For some such selfish reason as this she desires to have her husband converted. The prayer is purely selfish. Why should a woman desire the conversion of her husband? First of all and above all, that God may be glorified; because she cannot bear the thought that God the Father should be dishonored by her husband trampling under foot the Son of God."(13)
F. With concern for specific individuals (Job 42:10)
T. W. Hunt and Catherine Walker stated, "Prayer for the lost should be specific prayer. It should include prayer for specific individuals and specific requests for those individuals."(14)
III. What a Christian should pray for the lost
A. For the one who witnesses to the lost
Prayer alone will not save the lost. Charles Finney said, "To expect the conversion of sinners by prayer alone, without the employment of truth, is to tempt God."(15) E. M. Bounds wrote, "Whole nights of prayer have always been succeeded by whole days of soul-winning."(16)
1. For open doors (Col. 4:2-3; 2 Th. 3:1)
2. For boldness (Eph. 6:18-20)
Boldness in prayer and evangelism comes through the power of the Holy Spirit in the witness.(17)
B. For the Holy Spirit to convict the lost (Jn. 16:8)
C. For Satan to be withheld from the minds of the lost (Mk. 3:27; 2 Cor. 4:4, 10:4)
A Christian wrote, "We should claim the tearing down of all the works of Satan, such as false doctrine, unbelief, atheistic teaching and hatred, which the Enemy may have built up in their thinking. We must pray that their very thoughts will be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."(18)
IV. Illustrations of prayer for the lost
Christians prayed for the lost during the revival in New York City in 1857-58. Jeremiah C. Lamphier, a Presbyterian, was appointed a city missionary by the Old North Dutch Reformed Church near Wall Street. Lamphier tried to reach the community through neighborhood visitation and other methods. Then, the missionary announced a prayer meeting for noon on Wednesday, 23 September 1857. Only six participated in the first prayer meeting, but the next week fourteen came. After twenty-three attended the third meeting, the prayer meeting was conducted daily. At the peak of the revival, over six thousand people gathered daily at noon for prayer in churches and meeting halls throughout the city. Reporters wrote about the revival in the headlines of their newspapers. The revival spread in the United States so that more than 50,000 people were converted weekly during this prayer revival.(19)
A Christian prayed for the lost during the ministry of D. L. Moody in England. In 1872 when D. L. Moody preached in the morning service for Reverend Mr. Lessey of north London, Moody's sermon created little interest. But in the evening service hundreds responded to the invitation to become Christians. The inquiry room was filled both Sunday and Monday nights by those people who wanted to be saved. In a period of a few weeks, more than four hundred new members were received into the church. The secret of the success became evident when it was learned that an invalid member of the congregation had prayed for months that God would send D. L. Moody to preach in her church. When the invalid learned on Sunday afternoon that Moody had come, she spent that afternoon in prayer. Revival began that evening.(20)
A Christian prayed for the lost during the early ministry of Billy Graham. At Graham's first major crusade in Los Angeles during 1949, God spoke to a sixty-five year old widow named Pearl Goode. Goode felt called to pray for the ministry of Billy Graham. For many years she journeyed to the crusade sites, secured a room, and prayed for the services.(21)
1. James Hudson Taylor III, "God's Faithfulness to Eight Generations," Moody Monthly, September 1985, 51-52.
2. R. A. Torrey, The Power of Prayer (U.S.A.: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1924; reprint ed., Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing Company, 1974), 146.
3. Charles H. Spurgeon, Twelve Sermons on Prayer (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1971), 12-13.
4. Francis McGaw, Praying Hyde (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Dimension Books, Bethany Fellowship, Inc., 1970), 50-54.
5. Avis B. Christiansen, "Blessed Redeemer," (Nashville, Tennessee: The Benson Company, Inc., 1921), in The Baptist Hymnal, ed. Wesley L. Forbis (Nashville, Tennessee: Convention Press, 1991), 149.
6. Morris M. Townsend, How to Pray for the Unsaved Members of Our Families (Mobile, Alabama: The Gayo Fund, n.d.), 5-6.
7. James F. Eaves, "Prayer for the Lost and Church Growth," in Church Prayer Ministry Manual, 55.
8. Augustine Against Two Letters of the Pelagians I. 37., in Philip Schaff, ed., A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, vol. V., Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, trans. Peter Holmes, Robert E. Wallis, and Benjamin B. Warfield (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1980), 389.
9. Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol. VII (London, England: Passmore and Alabaster, n.d.; reprint ed., Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1978), 14.
10. Oswald J. Sanders, The Divine Art of Soul-Winning (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, n.d.), 17.
11. Augustine Confessions III. xii. 21., in Philip Schaff, ed., A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, vol. I, The Confessions and Letters of St. Augustine, With a Sketch of His Life and Work, trans. J. G. Pilkington (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983), 67.
12. Walter B. Knight, Knight's Treasury of Illustrations (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963), 269.
13. R. A. Torrey, How to Pray (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, n.d.), 76.
14. Hunt and Walker, 184.
15. Charles G. Finney, Revivals of Religion (U.S.A.: Fleming H. Revell, n.d.), 50.
16. Bounds, Purpose in Prayer, 117.
17. C. John Miller, "Prayer and Evangelism," in The Pastor-Evangelist: Preacher, Model, and Mobilizer for Church Growth, ed. Roger S. Greenway (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1987), 40-43.
18. How I Learned to Pray for the Lost (Lincoln, Nebraska: Back to the Bible Broadcast, n.d.), 4-5.
19. Bob L. Eklund, Spiritual Awakening (Atlanta, Georgia: Home Mission Board, 1986), 27-28.
20. A. P. Fitt, The Life of D. L. Moody (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, n.d.), 82-84.
21. George M. Wilson, ed., 20 Years Under God (Minneapolis, Minnesota: World Wide Publications, 1969), 102-3.